Meta
by LJ58
Summary: Set in the Justice League universe, a young boy is about to realize his meta-gene is going to change him in unexpected ways. Only those changes are only going to be the beginning as he faces a plot that might just destroy not only the League, but the entire world.
1. Chapter 1

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**1**

Adam Winter knew the very moment he developed his meta-gene.

It wasn't really that hard to guess. At least, not in retrospect.

One minute, 'Duke' Dugan, the crown prince of Metro-City High was pounding his fist into Adam's skinny belly, probably snapping a rib or two, and the next minute, all pain went away, even as Duke pulled back his fist, shaking his hand as he howled in outraged indignation.

"What the hell," the bigger, stockier teen howled as he looked at him, his other hand releasing its grip on his collar that had been so tightly wrapped in that big hand that Adam had felt he was being choked half to death atop all else.

Duke proved his intelligence had not earned him his top rankings in the school's élite when he shook off his own surprise and pain, and turned to glower at him anew.

"I don't know how you did that, geekoid, but now you're going to…"

That was the moment everything changed.

Adam felt nothing. Literally, nothing.

Only everyone around them saw Duke's big fist smash into his jaw, which didn't move an inch even as the sound of audibly crunching bone filled their ears.

Duke howled in earnest this time, cradling his injured hand as he stared in stunned disbelief at his hand which was already begun to swell, and darken ominously, giving grim testimony to the severity of his injury. The big jock, Adam knew, would not be playing for the local team this weekend after all. Not with that hand.

"What….? What the hell….? You…..freak," Duke hissed, backing away as he sputtered helplessly even as Adam held up his own hands, frowning as he casually flexed his small hands. He then put one hand to his jaw.

His no longer even remotely sore jaw.

Everyone seemed to be watching him as he shook his head, then gently probed his stomach. Frowning slightly himself, he lifted his oversized shirt that was one of his older sister's hand-me-downs, and realized three things at once.

One, there wasn't a bruise on him. Not one.

Two, his stomach, thin as ever, now sported surprisingly firm musculature that would have made any professional jocks drool in envy.

Third, he really wasn't feeling any pain at all. Not even a twitch when he gently pushed on that area where he knew Duke had to have broken a rib or two just moments ago.

"What the hell," someone asked, and dared move closer to eye him as Adam pulled his shirt down. "Dude, what happened," his best, and likely only friend Tommy asked as the only kid skinnier than he was eyed him, and then looked down the hall where Duke was actually fleeing as if faculty had showed.

"I'm…..not sure," he frowned. "Perhaps….? Perhaps a genetic shift of my metabolic structure, resulting in the dramatic, and unexpected regeneration. Along with….some subsequent augmentation of the base genome?"

"Huh?"

Adam blinked.

"Dude, you are not that smart," Tommy complained. "So when the hell did you start talking like Spock?"

Adam glanced around, saw only the witnesses who could be counted on _not_ to see Duke do his usual 'stand-up' routine with the victim of choice still watching him. Warily.

"I'm going to late for class," he declared, and squatted down to pick up his scattered books. "I'd better get going."

"Dude, you just broke Duke's fist on your face, and all you're worried about is old man Rogers?"

"It may not be a quality education, but it is still education, and mandatory in seeking better placement in life upon graduation," Adam assured him.

Tommy gaped after him.

"What?"

Adam felt the same way.

He might be the usual victim of bullies, decried as a geek, and worse. Only he had never been more than an average student. Had none of that stereotypical brain, like his older sister. In fact, he had none of their family's gifts. Nor did he have anything else going for him. In fact, he was pretty much as low on the totem as you could get, and still count yourself human.

What had happened?

He suspected he knew once he paused to think about it.

"Adam Winter, report to the office. Adam Winter. Office, please," the secretary's voice over the intercom cut into his thoughts before he even reached his classroom.

He sighed, and changed his direction mid-step.

He suspected that Duke had already sought vindication elsewhere, and was still trying to make…..an impact.

His eyes narrowed as he found himself mentally evaluating all the ways this latest session with the principal could, or would go.

To his astonishment, he felt none of the usual trepidation or fear he usually felt as he mentally reviewed his own options with a meticulous indifference that he knew was very unlike himself..

He glanced back at Tommy, who still gaped at him, and gave a faint smirk as he told him," Tell Mr. Rogers I shall likely be delayed."

Then headed for the office.

Tommy just stared as the others around him gawked, too, most of them still yet to comprehend exactly what they had just seen.

**X**

"Adam Winter?"

Adam looked up from the book he was reading, in rather swift time, to eye the man in the dark navy suit who had just entered the office.

"So, you're the one that will be taking me off to some secret lab for the usual experiments," he asked bitingly. "You made good time," he added, knowing he had only been sitting in the office ten minutes since the principal found him unwilling to accept blame for the 'incident.'

"Hardly, son. I'm Agent Dillon Connors," he said, and held out what looked like a plastic badge. "I'm currently posted as a site liaison with the government. I scout for potential metas. Then I offer them….guidance, possible training, and maybe a chance at contributing to a greater cause. Or even the chance to join….."

"I'm not into teams," Adam cut him off. "So far as I can tell, most of them are glorified jocks, anyway."

"Considering why I'm here, I think I can guess what you think of them, too," Dillon smiled, and sat on the chair next to his outside the principle's office. "My major point here, Adam, is that you are not alone here. A lot of people are going through what you are now."

"Let's be honest here, sir. How many high school losers do you know that suddenly gain what I have apparently gained here? The only reason you're even here is because I know enough of my actual rights to challenge that bureaucrat that fancies himself a football fan in there," he said, nodding toward the principle's office who was still chafing over his atypical stand against him, and Dugan this time.

"Some things don't change, I think we both know. As long as there have been schools, there have been bullies, and victims."

Adam's expression was telling.

"Are you really going to try the sympathy card now," he asked the agent.

"The point is, you've been given a gift. You are one of those that have taken a new step on an evolutionary path that not everyone can take. The question now is, how will you use that gift you've been given?"

"In short, am I going to pound on my former tormentors, go mad with the ecstasy of power, and exploit and manipulate my abilities for my own personal gain? I assure you, Agent Connors, I no more want to be a…..bully, than I do a jock. I just want to finish school, and live a normal life."

"That may not be entirely possible for you now," he admitted.

Adam nodded back, still secretly astonished that he was so calm next to a guy that could likely put him away for life if he wanted to try.

"Only because the current president is a self-serving control freak who forced that meta-registration act down everyone's throat. And _only_ so he could use metas as his private assassins."

"That's just anti-gov propa…"

"Do not insult my intelligence, sir," Adam cut him off, just as he had Mr. Sands when the fat man actually tried to blame him for Duke bullying him. Along with all that subsequently happened. He was even babbling about arrest, and criminal charges when Adam had abruptly invoked his own rights, and suggested they call the police for an objective investigation into Duke's antics.

Neither the principal, nor Duke, wanted that.

Cue the call to the Feds.

"Listen, Adam," Dillon's tone took a harder edge. "I don't think you fully understand the gravity of your circumstances….."

"I think I understand all too well. I'm not anyone's windup toy soldier. I haven't broken any laws. Nor do I intend to do so. Therefore, you may leave. I don't need you, or your dubious favors. Goodbye."

Dillon stood back up, reached for a radio on his belt, and thumbed the transmission button.

"Hostile meta on site," he reported curtly, his eyes now cold, and unfriendly. "I say again….."

"It's not working," Adam told him.

Adam smirked at the man who thumbed his radio, in vain, and then eyed him suspiciously.

"What did you do," he hissed in accusation.

"Nothing," Adam shook his head. "I can simply see that you haven't switched the RF gain over to compensate for the school's microwave satellite receivers. Old school radio doesn't do well with digital receivers in the area. I thought even you government types knew that much," he smiled.

Dillon frowned, and adjusted his radio which burst to life with a loud crackle of static as the office secretary just watched without a single word of comment.

Dillon now looked down at the lanky boy who sat on the chair, and still wasn't moving.

"You're not going to do anything?"

"Why? I'm not the on breaking the law," he shrugged.

"Not breaking…." The agent scowled bleakly, then seemed to psyche himself up as he all but barked, "You're an unregistered meta who refuses to cooperate," the agent cut off the sputtering Evan Sands who was watching from a distance across the office at his door.

"No. I'm a newly awakened meta who has not been given the chance to register, or consider any other options beyond your overt threats, or coercion."

"You give us no choice. You're coming with us, or we will take you," the man spat as Principal Sands just stood there staring. Not saying a word as he eyed him like he would a bug.

"No," Adam told him calm as ever. "You have overlooked a third option."

"Oh," the man asked condescendingly now.

"Yes. I wait here for my mother, whom I've already called, and who is already on her way."

"Your mother isn't going to be able to…"

The woman that walked into the office as if on cue just then was not what the agent expected.

"Adam," the tall, voluptuous brunette asked as she fixed her gleaming blue eyes on him the moment she entered the office. "What now?"

"In short? Apparently, I've an active meta-gene after all. Duke Dugan broke his hand on my jaw, prompting Mr. Sands to threaten me with assault. This was, naturally, just before Agent Collins showed up, and demanded I become a state assassin for that tyrant in the White House who thinks he's a god."

Dillon sputtered as the principal just groaned, and the woman eyed both men in turn. She then turned back to her son without saying a word to either of them.

"What do you think you've gotten, son?"

"I'm not entirely sure as yet, mother," he told her. "It did just manifest."

"Mrs. Winter," the man flashed his ID. "Your son is an unregistered….."

"You. Shut up," the woman growled at him, looking down her nose at him. "You," she turned to the principal. "Advise Mr. Dugan he has crossed the line one time too many. I will be bringing charges against him this time on behalf of my son, and naming you, _and_ the school board as culpable if you do not actually grow a pair, and admit what kind of environment you've been fostering here for those Neanderthals you call athletes."

"Now, see here….!"

"Mrs. Winter," Dillon sputtered on. "I don't think you understand how serious….."

"No," Amanda Winter flashed a card of her own. "I don't think you do. _Ms_. Amanda J. Winter. _Justice League _legal rep, and liaison for the Midwest."

"Oh…..hell," the man rasped even as the men he had radioed earlier only now stormed the office. All five men in body armor all pointed weapons at the mother and son.

"See what I mean," Adam sighed, and looked up from his chair without batting an eye.

Amanda Winter only smiled.

It was not the kind of smile Dillon liked seeing on a pretty face at any time.

"Do you really want to do this," Amanda asked Dillon who was about to bark an order even as one of the men made the choice for him. He fired a taze rifle point-blank at her, and then howled as the blast somehow reflected back at him, hitting him full in the throat where his armor did not protect him.

"Oops," Amanda drawled, lowering an arm, where the silver gleam of slender band adorned her wrist. "Sorry. But….accidents happen."

"She's _Amazon_, you idiots," Dillon told the rest of the team even as he only then made the connection himself. "Do you really think you can…..?"

Dillon froze, staring at Adam again, but it was the principal exclaimed, "You're _Amazon's_ son? But…. But…. But…."

"Intelligent response, isn't it," Adam asked, finally standing up beside his mother.

"I didn't think you Amazons got married," Evan Sands protested.

"Don't believe all the popular tripe you hear about my sisterhood, Mr. Sands. Come, Adam. I believe we have a date with a sympathetic judge."

She turned to the door, paused, and looked back at Dillon.

"_And_ my Justice League contacts."

Dillon swallowed hard.

Adam shot him a dry smirk, then followed his mother out of the room.

"Why didn't you tell me his mother was _that_ Amanda Winter," Dillon hissed at the school principal.

"How was I to know," the man wailed, looking at the still unconscious man on his office floor.

Dillon scowled, and snapped at the other men, "Get him out of here. And send him _back_ to training. Moron."

He stormed out, followed by his men, and tried to conjure a way to not have this look like a complete screw-up. The government was, in fact, very interested in harvesting new metas of late. The administration felt that the younger the better, but having one show up like this? One directly connected to the Justice League? The grandson of the famed _Wonder_ _Woman_ herself? This was going to blow up in their faces for certain. It certainly gave credence to the growing belief that the new government administration was actively conscripting metas, willing, or not.

Something that had been kept under the radar for the most part so far.

Until now.

Damn locals. This was supposed to have been a simple scoop. Instead, they managed to tip off one of the biggest anti-gov heroines in the League.

Damn, damn, damn.

He just knew this was going on his record. He just knew it.

**X**

Adam looked up at the two figures that walked into the clinic where he sat waiting.

He still found it astonishing how quickly his life had changed. How quickly, and how dramatically.

First, his mother had taken him to a judge to hear his story, and managed to get the complete tale out before the government spin doctors could fashion their own media cover. The subsequent press release covered all the reasons Amanda was taking her son out of an obviously unsafe academic environment. Even before they headed for the local League transporter, the outrage over apparently institutionally sponsored bullying was growing anew.

Neither of them felt it would do any real good in the long run. It just made for a good political diversion at the moment.

After the judge, and the press, his mother then brought Adam to the League's own highly secure orbital station where only a few could even gain access these days.

There, the famed, and seemingly ageless Martian J'onn J'onzz himself conducted a full physical, including a rather meticulous genetic assessment of Adam as he waited patiently for whatever was to be learned. Or done.

After the tests, the Martian had left, and now, just ten minutes later, the two most legendary figures in League history stood in front of him. Both true immortals. Both champions that transcended nations, or politics.

"Superman," he nodded at the tall, imposing figure next to his grandmother Diana. "Or do you favor Kal-El," he asked the legendary hero who wore only a dark blue bodysuit with a red sigil that slashed across his chest. The older, more colorful costume was long gone. So was the cape.

"Kal will be fine, Adam," the hero told him with a smile. "I'm told you've had quite the day."

"You could say so," he drawled.

"You seem quite composed considering," Diana murmured, still in her Amazonian costume that had not changed much at all over the years.

He gave a faint blush, knowing just what she meant. Not that he hadn't blushed the first time he realized that Diana Prince really was his grandmother, and his mother had once been an equally celebrated heroine.

Before now, though, Adam was the sort to hide from the world. And his troubles. He certainly wasn't so unruffled at his best, though. Yet, oddly enough, since that moment back in school when he realized he had changed, he felt…..serene.

"I know. All of this is….is quite unusual," he allowed as they walked over to stand before him, his mother coming in behind them. "Yet, it feels….natural. Which is weird in itself," he admitted.

"You should know," Diana told him. "J'onn thinks your….meta-gene isn't finished with you."

"No," he asked.

"Have you noticed anything beyond the obvious?"

"Well, other than the fact I'm starting to grow breasts," Adam asked with a wry query.

"Right," Amanda drawled, wondering if her son had noticed that, or not, from the way he wasn't reacting.

"Indeed," Diana murmured. "Amazons, as you know, are possessed of a degree of divine magic. Your mother and I more than most. Obviously, that magic is reacting with your meta-gene, and changing you in….unexpected ways."

"So…. I'm going to become a….a genetic female?"

"No. Based on the initial test results, J'onn thinks you're only becoming hermaphroditic."

He eyed his mother.

"That is not really reassuring, mother," he sighed ruefully, thinking of all the issues that one would raise with his peers.

"There is more."

He looked back at Kal-El now, and nodded.

"I guessed as much. I already noticed I had healed instantly, without pain, and my intelligence seemed to have dramatically increased in the same instant. So, what else," he asked as blandly as ever.

"It's more, because I think you are manifesting my own _divine_ gifts," Diana told her. "In a way not even your mother ever managed. The wisdom of Athena, for instance."

"Ah," he nodded in understanding.

"The strength of Zeus," Diana went on. "The speed of Hermes, and even, I suspect, Hestia's gift of Truth. Even your senses will likely sharpen in time. Perhaps even to rival my own. In time, you may well become my equal based on what J'onn has learned," Diana told him.

Adam just stared in silence at that declaration.

"That said, you present a dilemma," Kal told him.

"Obviously. The government…."

"Man's world means nothing to you as of now," Diana declared flatly, now using her 'royalty' tone. "You are, however, the offspring of an Amazon. By law and tradition, every Amazon returns to Themyscira for proper training when they are of age."

"Only I'm not a female," Adam stated quietly as he eyed his grandmother. "At least, not yet."

"Nor are you likely to become one in truth," Amanda told him, now wearing her own 'costume' that was a cross between Kal's bodysuit, and her mother's Amazonian colors. Since she was their child, it didn't surprise anyone that knew the truth.

Unlike the timeless heroes, she was one of the few that walked openly before others, not caring that her 'identity' was known, but giving no hint to her own parentage beyond the obvious Amazonian bloodline.

"I'm going to speak to my mother. Queen Hippolyta will have to decide how we are to proceed. Obviously, you are now more than ready to train. Your….unique status, however, will make for a curious dilemma I'm sure might boggle even my mother's mind," she said with a faint smile.

Adam, who had often heard of his maternal great-grandmother, though he had yet to meet her, didn't argue.

"And in the meantime," he asked.

"You stay here, and let J'onn keep an eye on you, and offer you some….initial training."

"I really don't want to _join….anyone's_ team," he daringly told Kal-El.

"A demonstration," Amanda suggested to them as they all just regarded him casually.

"Absolutely," Diana nodded her agreement.

"Son," Amanda barked.

Adam turned, and instinctively caught the metal beaker his mother threw his way.

"Look at it," Amanda told him as he instinctively caught it in one hand.

Adam looked down, and gasped.

The metal was a misshapen mass in his hands, crushed as easily as he might have once wadded paper.

"You need to learn…. To relearn your own body, and strength," Diana told her. "Trust me, you need to harness your strength, or you might find yourself becoming a threat to those around you without meaning to be."

"I…..see," he rasped, carefully setting the metal blob aside, and looking as stunned as he felt.

If he had reacted earlier at school, lost control like those agents obviously expected, Duke might not even have survived to complain.

"You're right," he nodded at them. "I still don't want to join any teams, but….. I don't want to hurt anyone either."

"Mother will love you. A true pacifist," Diana chortled.

Adam said nothing to that.

_To Be Continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**2**

"Welcome to Themyscira, granddaughter," the statuesque blonde smiled at Adam who after just nine days, was indeed showing very overt signs of becoming femininely curved. His sweatshirt, once baggy on him, now seemed to be much snugger, and showed signs of filling out in ways he never expected to manage.

Just nine days, and he was already almost an entirely different...person.

"Thank you, your majesty," he said quietly, feeling more than a bit awkward just then.

Amanda only smiled as she stepped forward, and bowed to the golden queen of the Amazons. "Greetings, grandmother. We much appreciate you accepting Adana into your care."

"Of course, Amanda. How could I do any less for one of my own kindred," the queen smiled at Adam. "So, Adana?"

"His…. That is, her choice," Amanda told her. "As the inevitable encroached, he chose the name himself. I felt it….suitable."

"It is a fine name," Hippolyta nodded at the young teen. "So, then, are you ready to begin your new studies?"

"Yes, your majesty," Adana, still feeling himself more male than not, blushed brightly at the sight of the women all around him.

"Excellent. I understand you cannot stay, but do feel free to return when you can, daughter," Hippolyta told Amanda as she moved to embrace her. "Tell your mother she need not be a stranger, either. I know her duties do not keep her that busy any longer."

"I shall remind her," Amanda smiled, and stepped back. "Now, unfortunately, my own duties do still call, so I have to beg off any hospitality for now."

"By the way, Tala was here last week."

"I know."

"You still haven't made up," Hippolyta asked.

"She is….willful."

"You all were," Hippolyta sighed. "It seems to run in the family."

"Well, so far Adana isn't. He…. _She_ is much more…..subdued. Especially now."

"We shall see how long that lasts," the queen turned to the young teen, and gave him a cryptic smile.

Adana only blushed all the more. He might be increasingly feminine in appearance, but so far, his mindset was remaining stubbornly male. J'onn claimed that would likely fade in time. So far, it had yet to show any signs of even weakening. This, he realized, was going to be a very long, and difficult training session for more than one reason. Very long.

**X**

"Name," the bored security guard asked as he looked up at her.

The willowy, if shapely young brunette smiled, and held out an identification card even as she replied, "Adana Winter," she told him, holding a suitcase in one hand, with a backpack on her shoulder as she stood there, showing little concern for the obvious weight. "Freshman."

"Winter. Winter. Win…. Ah, right. You've got room 301, girl. Remember to read the rules, and no drugs, or partying. This is a respectable dorm, and I intend to see it remains one this semester," the man in a grey security uniform scowled.

"Yes, sir," she nodded, taking the key he handed her.

"And if you can't get along with your roommates," the man began, making Adana turned to eye him even as she began walking toward the stairs.

"Yes?"

"Try harder. Room assignments are permanent. Unless you quit, or die."

"I'll try to be tolerant," she said dryly, eyeing him only briefly before heading for the stairs again.

"Ignore him," a younger girl with sandy blonde hair striped with pink grinned as she joined her at the door to the stairs. "Robbie's watched one too many bad cop movies, and thinks he's some kind of super cop now."

"Is that what it was? Bad acting," Adana remarked wryly.

"Well, that, and he's really just that big a jerk," the girl grinned. "I'm Darla. Everyone calls me Pinky," the blonde grinned as she lightly danced up the stairs with her. "Sophomore year, though I know I don't look it. But I have had all the best prep schools, so this place is kind of a joke. You?"

"Freshman," she admitted. "I've been in a….private school until now."

That, she knew, was the best way to describe the past three years of intensive training on an island full of Amazon warriors that took their duties very, very seriously.

"Sucks to be you. Most of the guys here are public school dropouts pretending to be socially concerned wannabes. Only their fams' money and prestige kept them out of jail, or worse. Being of age, most of them came here to torment those they deem their inferiors," Pinkie sighed.

"Let me guess. You're one of the inferiors?"

"Ooooh, you are quick. Which means you must actually have a brain. Trust me, they'll hate you, too."

"But I haven't even met…..anyone. Well, except you," Adana protested.

"True, but you're third floor. Right?"

"301," she nodded.

"I'm in 305. All the socially inept, or unconnected sorts languish on the third floor. Only the truly elite get first floor rooms. Get it?'

"So, rather than climbing the ladder, you hope to _slide_ _down_ it here," Adana suggested wryly as she climbed the steps without showing any indication her bags weighed her down.

"Hey, that's a good one," the blonde grinned. "But, yeah, pretty much. So, first day, or were you here in the summer?"

"First day. First hour. First minute," she nodded, pausing at the door to eye the wooden panel with a nameplate slotted for four names under the number. All of which were blank.

"The dorm monitor/den mother will put up the names later. The first week in a new term a lot of newbies always drop out for…..various reasons, so they don't bother with name plates too much until the students are pretty much stabilized, and proving they intend to stay."

"Well, I'm here to stay. Mother insists. Something about learning proper social integration, or else," she sighed.

"Ouch."

"Grandmother's worse," she sighed. "I think. She suggested I just be dropped off at the coast of my choice, and be left to make my way to the other coast on my own. No help but my own, as she puts it, skills and abilities to test my character, and resolve."

"Wow. Tough fam," Pinkie exclaimed as Adana unlocked the door, and pushed it open.

"You have no idea," the now voluptuously rounded brunette told her as she walked over to one of the two sets of bunks, and eyed them. "I won't even bother to tell you about my aunts," she told her carelessly.

"Looks like someone already staked out their territory," Pinkie drawled, eyeing the bags on one of the top bunks, and the lock on a trunk at the end of the bed.

Another bed on the lower bunk had someone's sheets piled on the end, and a large, pink teddy lay near the pillow already in place.

"I predict a fast change in someone's life," Pinky drawled, eyeing the pink teddy with a garish bow with a grimace.

"Nothing wrong with bringing a little bit of home with you," Adana murmured.

"And did you?"

She eyed the girl, and smiled blandly. "After a fashion," she said.

"Define fashion," Pinky all but challenged her as Adana set her bags down, and then tossed her backpack up on the unclaimed top bunk. "You're taking a chance, you know that? Most girls want the top, and they get grumpy about it if someone gets to it first."

"Well, call me Grumpy," Adana drawled with a faint smirk, and set her larger suitcase on the desk between the beds to open it up.

"Wow. Getting to the heart of the social challenges right off, are you?"

"Why not," she shrugged as he opened the suitcase. "You?"

"Hey, I know my limitations. I slinked in, claimed a bottom bunk, and took off to let whoever else shows fight it out while I safely wait out the bloodshed elsewhere," Pinky grinned.

"Clever," Adana murmured.

"So, you aren't worried some wrecking ball won't come in, and call your bluff?"

"I'm not much for bluffing. I really do just want to get along, but I have learned to stand up for myself. Sometimes that means doing what you want in spite of other's expectations," Adana told her.

"I can't wait till you meet Barb."

"Barb?"

"Well, those that know, and loathe her call her Barbie. But only behind her back. She's the queen-bee golden-girl around here. Cheerleader, honor roll, and all the usual kudos of the socially blessed. Not only is she a senior this year, but her daddy's a political big shot of some kind, as she will continually rub in your face," Pinky informed her with a gagging gesture.

"That bad?"

"Worse. She's even threatened to use her family clout to browbeat some of the students here in the past," Pinky advised her.

"Not you?"

"Hey, I'm too unimportant to even blackmail," she sighed with a grin. "I hope to remain that way. At least until I can land my first high-paying, but potentially profitable job. At least, that's the dream."

"Nice dream," Adana murmured.

"Well, aren't you kind of connected, though? I mean, private schools, and all?"

"Trust me, mom's very much into the bootstrap mentality. If I can't do the self-improvement bit, she'd happily take grandmother's advice, and show me a coastline."

"Wow. But, no pressure, right?"

Adana chuckled.

"Well, it's kind of expected in my family to be….."

"Perfect?"

"I wouldn't say perfect," Adana grimaced as she began putting things away. "Just….self-reliant, and disciplined. Mother is very fond of saying be yourself, but never miss an opportunity."

"My mom is very fond of saying, 'Why are you back here now,'" Pinky quipped.

"She can't be that bad?"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you. I think the only reason she stays in touch is because she wants to know if I do actually make it big. Then she could sponge off me."

"Oh."

"Hey, that's just my circ's. No big deal. So, you're the family project type, huh?"

"You could say that. I've got….very big boots to fill."

"Really? So, you're fam is what? Business types? Scientists? Philanthropists? What's their deal," Pinky asked insolently as she watched Adana put her clothes away.

"Mom's in….law. My grandmother is in…. Well, you could call it human resources. My older sister went into law enforcement, though, and she's out to make a name for herself as fast as she can."

"Do I know her," Pinky asked with the eyes of someone that likely knew every celebrity on television.

"Not yet. Tala's only been at it a few years. Bootstraps, remember. Our family refuses to trade favor, or consequence to help gain what they feel should be earned."

"Yep. Tough love," Pinky grimaced, then saw the silver-gilt white robe she was putting into a drawer. "Whoa, what kind of gown is that?"

"Uh, it's a family thing. For special….get-togethers."

"Are you Wiccan, or something?"

Adana snorted, and gave a faint laugh.

"I think mom would laugh herself sick if she heard that one," the brunette told her.

"Uh, hi," a timid voice called as a small, mousy girl with a red ponytail peered into the room. "Hi. I'm Lena. Are you guys my roommates," she asked bashfully as she eased into the room as if expecting trouble.

"Not me. The professional model here is, though."

"What," Adana sputtered. "I am not a…."

"You got the looks, and the….."

Pinky gave an exaggerated heft of her own smaller breasts, and grinned.

"Just makes sense you would be the calendar girl type."

"No way, no how. Never in this, or any century," Adana growled.

"Whoa, girl," Pinky said as Lena actually paled at her rising ire. "I was teasing. Nothing serious. 'Kay?"

Adana closed her eyes, closed her empty suitcase, and shook her head.

"Sorry. I…..got a lot of ribbing after…._puberty_. I'm still a little touchy."

"While some of us are still waiting for puberty," Pinky declared insouciantly as she poked at her own smaller breast now.

Lena gave a faint smile, smaller, and thinner than either of them, and smiled bashfully again.

"I'm Lena. Lena Weems. I'm a Freshman. Obviously," she blushed.

"Me, too. Adana Winter," she said, but didn't take the offered hand. She still had an issue with shaking hands. Or anything else. Sometimes she still had trouble with her motor control. The last thing she needed on the first day in college was to crush a classmate's hand.

True, she had learned to manage her strength better than she had at the start, but it was on an island full of super-powered Amazon warriors who could take her lapses a lot more easily than a tiny girl who looked like she might just be made of glass.

"Uh, nice to meet you," Lena babbled uncertainly.

"You, too. Look, I….. Where I come from, we don't shake hands. No offense."

"Then how do you say hello? Kisses and hugs," Pinky quipped.

Adana eyed the girl, and decided she liked her insolent manner.

"Mostly, we bow," Adana told her, thinking of her great-grandmother.

"Oh, ho. Bowing and curtsying. Special robes. What century did you come from again?"

Adana rolled her eyes.

"So, are you a Freshman, too," Lena asked her, the redhead still looking nervous.

"Me? Nah, I'm a Sophomore."

"Sophomoric, maybe," Adana quipped.

"Ooooh, good one," Pinky declared. "Might be hope for you after all.… Shoot, I really gotta come up with a good nickname for you," she decided when she paused, obviously struggling for a label to hang on her.

"I have a name."

"No one uses their real name in college. It's all slang, and cool tags, and….."

"And you want to mock the bowing," Adana demanded now, putting her empty suitcase into the still mostly empty closet.

"It's tradition," Pinky sniffed.

"So is bowing."

"Maybe in the last century," the blonde huffed as Lena just stared at them.

"You two aren't going to fight, are you," she asked, looking leery of both of them.

The two stared at one another, then burst into laughter.

"No," Pinky spoke first, having laughed so hard she had to wipe tears from her eyes. "We're just ribbing each other. Friends do that."

"So, you're friends?"

"Sure," Adana said carelessly after glancing at Pinky's cocky grin.

"I….don't think any of my friends are coming here. Must be nice to already know someone," she sighed as she went to her lower bunk, and sit down near the pillow. One hand unconsciously straying to the foot of the stuffed bear.

Adana smiled, and told her, "Actually, we just met. So we've been friends, what ten minutes?"

"More like seven or eight," Pinky declared after making an overt glance at her watch. "Oh, make it nine."

"You're nuts," Adana told her.

"And you're stacked. We should draw the studs like flies," she declared.

"Okay, that's where I say ugh."

Pinky stared.

"No studs," she gasped dramatically. Then she grinned. "So, you bat for the other team," she asked, wagging her brows.

"Actually, I'm not sure what team I'm on," Adana told her. "I've been too busy studying."

"Whoa, that's entirely too much studying. Stick with me, girl, because I know the best sororities, and can get you into the best party. You'll be batting 'em out of the park in no time."

"Bootstraps, and discipline, remember," Adana told her. "No parties for this girl," Pinky was told.

"What? Not even one little dance," the blonde gasped in mock-horror.

"Well, I can waltz."

"Waltz," Pinky sniggered. Then stared somberly when Adana said nothing. "Wait, that was serious?"

"It's….expected in my family."

"You, girlfriend, are weird. You have got to get out more, and I'm just the girl to get you out."

"I have to….."

"What mommy don't know, won't hurt her," Pinky winked. "Oh, thought I heard my roomie bellow. Better go see what crawled up her…..pantyhose," she said as someone shouted from down the hall.

"She seems…..uh, nice," Lena said quietly, one hand still gripping her bear's leg.

"She's a bit different, but she is nice," Adana told her. "So, you're Lena?"

Lena nodded.

"I hope we can be friends, too. I mean, aside from being roommates, it will make living together a lot easier," she smiled.

"Me, too," Lena blurted out. "I mean, I mean, yes, I hope we can be friends. Have you met….anyone else?"

"I've only seen you, and whoever else is here was gone before I arrived."

"They must have come in after I did. No one had anything on the other beds when I arrived," the small redhead told her.

"So, what's your major? Or have you decided?"

"Haven't a clue. I'm leaning toward education. I thought…. I'm kind of considering being a teacher. Elementary, of course. I doubt I could handle high school again," she shivered.

"Who would want to try," Adana smiled.

"So, have you got a major," Lena asked, starting to relax just a little. Even letting go of her pink bear as she moved to straighten up a bit.

"I'm considering international law, or maybe economics."

"Wow. Hardcore."

"Well, my family is kind of….involved in law, and diplomacy, so….it's kind of expected."

"Oh, well, yeah. I can see that."

"Wow. Talk about _Beauty and Beast_," a Rubenesque blonde in tight jeans, and a tighter halter who looked all muscle walked into the room just then.

"Pardon," Adana huffed, turning from reaching for her backpack to unpack the last of her personal items into the drawers assigned by bed number.

"Whoa," the blonde grinned, eyeing her as Lena seemed to cringe again. "Didn't even see you, Jugs. I was talking about Tiny and her pet, there. You know, Beauty and the Beast? Seemed to fit."

"My name is Adana," she said flatly, "Not Jugs," she added. "And Lena likely doesn't appreciate your…..teasing."

"It's all right," Lena murmured, shrinking back. "I just want to….get along…."

"Hey, hey, hey," the blonde held up both hands. "I was teasing. Didn't mean a thing by it. Pops is always saying my mouth engages long before my brain. So, no offense. Just trying to be friendly. Okay? I'm Carla, by the way. Everyone at home calls me Motor-mouth, though," she grinned. "Bet you'll never guess why?"

"I think I have a clue," Adana murmured.

"Let me guess. Since you all righteous, and everything, you're likely the brainiac type that breaks the stereotype, and spends all her time in books. Right?"

"I wouldn't say all my time," Adana muttered.

"That's cool. I'll need a smart roomie to help me get through this. I have to admit, I'm only here because Pops insisted all his kids get educated. I'd really rather be back home helping on the farm. Livestock, and agri, I know. Books, not so much."

"You….really worked….on a farm?"

"Family farm. We all work, or we all work. Pops wasn't big on choices," Carla grinned at Lena. "Let me guess. You were the family pet? Never got your hands dirty?"

"Actually, I've been a waitress for three years now. It's how I saved enough to get into college," Lena told her. "I'm…..a foster kid. Or was, I guess. When you turn eighteen, they kind of just dump you."

"That tanks," Carla huffed. "I knew some kids in the system. I hated the way the adults treated them, but, shoot, our peers weren't much better at times."

"No," Lena murmured.

"Well, you're out of it now, and you're among friends now. Right, Ju…. Ah, Brainiac? Friends," she asked, holding out a big, calloused hand.

"She….doesn't shake hands," Lena said quietly, eyeing the big hand.

"And, uh, don't call me Brainiac," she groaned, having a few negative feelings about that particular name. She could just imagine her mom's reaction to it.

"Okay, okay. So you don't like nicknames. Don't shake hands. Tough crowd. So, Adana, right?"

"Nice to meet you," Adana nodded now.

"Likewise. So, anyone taking business, or agri classes? Anyone?"

Adana sighed as Carla looked hopefully at them.

"Education," Lena finally murmured.

"Economics," Adana told her. "Probably some poli-sci classes."

"Econ-One! Cool! So, you'll be my study-buddy," Carla all but begged with a wide grin.

Adana sighed, and rolled her eyes.

_To Be Continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**3**

Pinky yawned as she walked into the class, and paused to grin before taking her usual seat beside Adana.

"Please, please, please, please tell me there isn't a pop quiz today?"

"There isn't a pop quiz today," Adana told her dryly. "There is a section exam."

Pinky's jaw all but dropped.

"No," she rasped.

"Up late again?"

"You should have been there, girl," the blonde grinned, though she still looked wrung out. "Delta Pi was having a mixer, and….."

"Clear your desks," the professor growled as the stern matronly woman in no-nonsense business attire walked into the room carrying her usual briefcase right on the bell.

Pinky groaned, and eyed Adana. "Guess it's not open-book?"

"Since when did Professor Weems make Economics easy," Adana asked, this being only the fourth week of class, and far from the first test.

"Man," Pinky groaned, sinking into her desk. "I am so going to fail again."

"Again," Adana frowned, suddenly glad Carla wasn't in this class, too. Tutoring one thick head was enough.

"This….might be my second go at Econ-101," she groaned. "I have to pass," she sighed. "My old man will have a fit if I blow another class."

"Maybe less partying, then," Adana suggested as the woman stopped to eye them, then put a sheet of paper face down on her desk.

"Do I need to separate you two," the professor asked somberly.

"No, ma'am," Adana assured her. "Darla was just bemoaning her lack of caffeine this morning."

"Indeed," the older woman declared, and slapped a paper down on Pinky's desk. "I rather doubt the lack of sleep is aiding you either, young lady. I suggest less socializing, and more studying if you wish to pass this term," she quipped knowingly.

Pinky groaned again as the professor went on passing out papers, and then walked to the front of the class, about to give her last-minute directions even as the door abruptly slammed open.

Every eye in the class went to the tall man in the door with a ski mask over his head as he raised a machine pistol even as he stepped forward, shouting, "Schools out, corporate cogs," and opened fire.

Everyone screamed as the lead began flying, and Professor Weems went down spraying blood from a wound in her left side.

Everyone screamed, and tried to find a place to run, or just duck down to hide.

Except Adana.

A few years ago, she would have screamed, and likely died, too.

Everything had changed, though, and despite the time of relative peace, her now honed, and practiced instincts surged to the fore as she leapt from her desk even before the thought wed to impulse, crossing most of the classroom in the blink of an eye, and landed not three feet from the gunman.

All while he continued to fire.

Only his bullets weren't reaching any targets any longer.

Her hands flashed faster than even the stream of deadly lead, and every round was intercepted, and bounced back, sparing the fourteen students in the class who had been fully expecting to die when the man in green camo had burst into the room.

The man began to scream profanities when he realized that not only wasn't the girl in front of him dying, but no one else was either. He stopped the rapid fire, and aimed a single round at her face, certain she was wearing a vest, since he couldn't quite grasp that her now visible bracelets she wore were the sole means of her defense. Pulling the trigger, he fell back giving an aborted yip when her hand moved again, this time inadvertently sending the ricochet bouncing back to punch a hole right through his own forehead.

The man dropped twitching, dying even as he did, but by then Adana heard more firing down the hall.

Even as she jerked the guy out of the hall, and into the room, the other students tried to run past her, mostly in panic mode, and seeking only escape.

"Get back," Adana hissed at Pinky, and the others as she peered around the door into the hall. "There are two more men just ahead," she told them, seeing one coming their way, and another kicking another class door open.

"Oh, God, we're going to die," one of the girls behind her whimpered shrilly, which drew both men's attention.

"Pinky," she said, keeping her eyes on the men as she stood just inside the door. "When I draw their fire, you lead the others left to the stairwell, and get them going downstairs."

"But….?"

"I'll be right behind you," she assured the girl as the wounded professor sagged between two students who stared at her as if she were nuts. "Just go, and _don't_ look back."

"Well, well, well," one of the two men grinned as they lifted semi-automatics in her direction even as she stepped out of the door. "Looks like we got us a hero."

"A dead hero," the other spat, and opened fire.

Pinky, about to move, ducked back, shrieking again when the men both opened fire at once.

To her genuine astonishment, her friend did not fall in a bloody heap when the bullets starting flying, and ricocheting. Instead, her arms moved in a blur of motion once more, and she shouted, "Go! _Now,"_ even as she kept her eyes fixed on the men firing at her, though Pinky was still unable to believe what her friend was doing.

"Oh…..my…..God," someone wailed, but Pinky took the hint, and was bolting for the stairs. Behind her, the class followed, and when Adana heard the door to the stairs close a moment later as the men cursed, and paused to reload.

Before they did, Adana rushed forward, slamming one man into a wall, knocking him instantly unconscious, before grabbing the other, and slinging him around against the wall as she tore his weapon from his hand.

"I am going to give you one chance," she hissed. "Tell me what's going on here. How many of you are there, and where they are? Tell me, and maybe I won't throw you out the window."

The man's eyes rounded behind his ski mask, knowing they were four floors up. The fall might not kill him, but he would still be in a lot of pain when he hit. If he survived.

"What the fuck are you," he hissed in response, his hand scrabbling for something at his belt.

"Looking for this," she asked, holding up the belt she had torn free with her other hand when she grabbed him, along with the grenades, and the long knife sheathed there.

"You can't stop us. Not all of us. We are going to make a statement that not even your corrupt President can denyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy," he howled as he went flying toward the window, but hit the wall next to it instead.

He slumped to the floor, not out cold, but in genuine pain as he had clipped the hard glass, and part of the sill, the corner of the frame feeling as if it had shattered something in his back.

"My bad. Guess I'm not much of a throw. Should I try again?"

"All right! All right," he wailed, feeling that if she grabbed him again something inside was going to seriously get hurt. If it weren't already the way his side that hit that concrete sill felt. "Nine of us are working to take down this entire building. All the poli-sci classes were targeted to prove a point."

"That you're idiots?"

"That the American government is corrupt, and must be…"

"Where are the others," she demanded, cutting him off as she stomped over to tower over him with raised fists. Her mom always told her that once the bad guys started ranting, they were sometimes hard to stop.

"On the first floor by now, waiting for those we flushed to come down, and be cut down," he grinned raggedly. "So, kiss all your little friends goodbye. By the time they reach the lobby… Bang, bang," he cackled just a bit madly.

She slapped him hard enough to break his jaw, and this time he did not move when he hit the floor.

"Bastards," she spat, and raced for the stairs.

She pushed through the door, and let her breath out when she saw Pinky below her on the second floor landing, and shouted, "Wait! Wait right there. I think more are waiting on the first floor."

"What do we do," the girl asked as the fourteen students whimpered as she put a foot on the railing even as some students and faculty came out of the third floor exit to join them, and said, "I'll go first."

And even one of the boys yelped as she dropped straight down to the first floor landing after jumping the guardrail to plummet past them. Professor Weems, looking barely conscious, just stared blankly after her.

Looking back up after landing in a low crouch, she nodded at the sophomore, and told her, "Stay low, and stay quiet as you start down. Just stay back while I check this out. Don't open any doors."

Pinky just nodded, just staring down at the girl she thought she knew as the wounded Professor Weems rasped, "Meta. Has to be….meta."

"You think," one of the boys grumbled. "Damn, no wonder she isn't scared!"

Adana heard all that and more as she moved to the door, and listened. Pushing the lever, she heard nothing, but she stepped out, and looked down the hall, and saw the side exit was chained shut. That meant they intended to likely herd everyone to the front, and then have them shot there in a likely crossfire. She eased down the hall, no one showing yet as she snapped the chain, and pushed the door open to glance out at a bunch of police already surrounding the building.

Glancing back the way she had come, she saw no one else.

Yet.

Holding up a finger when one of the police outside gestured curtly at her, she ducked back inside, and went to rush Pinky, and the others still joining their class down.

"Take the exit, and stay to the side. I think they're all in the lobby near the front. I'm going to check the other exits."

"Thanks, Ada," another girl told her, staring at her incredulously. "Thanks," she rasped, and then ran outside without looking back.

"Go," she nodded at the others, keeping herself between them, and anyone else that might yet appear in the hall.

Once they were out, she looked up and saw a few heads still on the stairs looking down. She waved them down, and then headed for the lobby even as she noted several cops were now rushing that open side door even as the students, leading their injured professor, raced away from danger.

Meanwhile, she had nine wannabes waited according to the guy upstairs.

With one down in the classroom, and two in the hall, that left six. Unless he lied. She hoped not.

She got to the cross-section of the hall near the lobby as she glanced toward the doors, and saw four men with weapons aimed at over a dozen students and faculty down on their knees in front of the glass doors. Obviously cowards, she knew, to use others as shields. That still left two more of their group unaccounted for as yet.

She glanced left. The elevator doors were open. Jammed in place. No one was inside. That meant they expected people to use the stairs, and even as she looked, she saw five more people coming out of the stairwell on that far end of the hall even as two more gunmen emerged behind them, herding them. Several were already wounded, one visibly bleeding. She didn't want to imagine what they had left behind them.

She frowned, and glanced back at the lobby.

She swept the entire scene at a glance, and knew she only had seconds to act. Just as she knew that whatever she did, someone might still get hurt.

She wondered if her mom had ever felt like this even as she sifted things in her mind, and chose a tact. She already knew these boys were willing to take innocent lives. She knew that people likely already lay dead upstairs because they were so eager for blood from all that shooting she had heard. Not just on her floor.

She glanced right again, and raced forward. Thankfully, no one in the lobby noticed her run past them. She moved on, staying low as she rushed forward, seeing the alarm in the first students' eyes as she chose her mark, jumped up, and landed on top of both the gunmen before they realized she was even there. Both men were out cold even as she rose upright from their downed bodies after slamming them back to bounce their heads off the floor with enough force to make them bounce.

Hopefully, she hadn't hit them too hard. The last thing she needed to do was have to face their inevitable lawyers. Not that she worried about them too much just yet.

"Ssshhhh," she told the stunned group as they gaped at her. "Follow me. I'll let you out the side. The police are already waiting."

She found the far door chained, too, like the other, and again shocked them by snapping the chain like rotted twine, and ushered them outside. Stopping the last professor, a wiry man she didn't know, she told him, "Tell the police there are four more gunmen still in the lobby. Two incapacitated upstairs on the fourth floor. Ask them to distract the men in the lobby in two minutes so I can try to take them by surprise."

"But…."

"Go," she hissed, and shoved the man out the door even as she saw the cops surging forward on that side of the building when they noted more students rushing outside.

She eased back toward the lobby, listening, but the gunmen had yet to figure out what was going on.

"What's taking the guys so long," she heard someone complain as she neared the corner of that cross-section. "We should have a full house by now. Or something close."

"They're probably playing with the sluts. Who cares? Before this over, we're going to be famous, man," someone chortled. "Everyone will know our names. We'll even be on _Letterman_!"

"Screw that. I just want to rattle that pompous freak in the White House. It's time to light the fire, and let this country _burn_!"

"It's gonna burn," another of the four laughed mockingly. "And it's going to start right here. We cap these posers right in front of the cameras, and everyone is going to know we're serious. They are going to…"

"You in the building. This is the police," someone shouted over a bullhorn.

"Well, duh," one of them muttered. "Talk about dimwits."

"We're ready to listen to your demands. Just don't hurt anyone."

"Too late, piggy," someone tittered, sounding as if they were just a little mad. Adana used her hearing to place him, and decided he had to be first. He would likely be the one to try to hurt someone with his dying breath. Madmen always did.

"You want demands," one of the men shouted even as she used the lobby furniture to creep closer, and get a better look around. "I'll give you demands," he shouted as glass cracked, and shots were fired.

Someone shrieked, and people wailed, but Adana didn't smell blood.

Yet.

She left the final chair that covered her advance, and surged forward once more. She found the madman by placing the source of his voice, and jerked him back the instant she reached him, throwing him back behind her even as she rushed the man spraying the crowd outside with a mini-gun on full auto. She didn't stop to wonder where he had gotten such a weapon. She clamped a hand down on the barrel near the feed, twisting, and bending the weapon into useless metal even as she jerked it from it's owner's hands, and then swung around, catching a third man in the jaw, knocking him back, and not quite out as he screamed hellishly at the impact.

Okay, still had to work on holding back she reminded herself as she noted his cheek and jaw both gave way even as she turned on the fourth man while a follow-up kick drove the machine-gunner into the ground with a dull groan.

The last man had to be one of the most intelligent.

He looked around him, threw up his hands, and shouted, "I surrender," even as his gun was dropped from his hands.

The man she flung back was just then sliding down the wall near the elevator doors, out cold from the impact of hitting the wall. His hand, she noted, dropped a remote detonator that flashed red, indicating it was active.

"Don't…..move," she told the only man on his feet as she walked over, picked up the detonator, and crushed it in both hands after she disarmed it.

Just to be certain, she jerked several battery-packs from the fallen man's belt, and dropped them on a nearby table.

"Outside," she nodded as the hostages just looked around, still on their knees, still uncertain as to whether they were safe, or not.

The wannabe frowned, but she stepped forward, shoved him before her, and saw the doors were also chained.

"You guys really are idiots," she told him, and snapped a chain to open one door before she shoved him again, out and into the limelight he apparently craved as she waved the police in. "I think it's clear," she shouted. "We need paramedics, though."

She wasn't thinking of the men she had put down, of course. She was thinking of the people around her, some of whom looked hurt. Some just battered, several overtly bleeding. She still had no way of knowing what lay on the other floors.

Then the police were there, waving weapons, rushing people out, and a grim, cold-eyed man was suddenly in front of her with a badge, asking her questions so fast she couldn't answer them before he asked another.

She stood and stared at him as the police and paramedics swarmed around them, and the man finally paused, and demanded, "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"After you take a breath," she remarked blandly.

"Smart ass. Just tell me, are you here undercover? You're with the _League_, right?"

She sighed, and pulled out her identity card out of her wallet, which was in her jeans, rather than her backpack, which was still upstairs. "Provisional status," she told him. "I am actually attending classes here when these clowns decided to use us to make some kind of insane political point."

The man eyed the digital card, and frowned.

"I'm going to need a statement. And I'll need to clear you with the local League Chapter."

"I know the drill," she grumbled. "Am I going to need a lawyer?"

The man looked around.

"It likely wouldn't hurt," he told her as one of the still conscious men moaned raggedly. "Not that I care, but I can already guess some of those perps are going to be screaming when they wake up."

"Probably. I left two down the hall, and two on the third floor. Uh, actually three. But one of them isn't going to be waking up."

"You killed him?"

"He killed himself," she told him, holding up a wrist adorned by a familiar silver bracelet. "I can't control ricochets when they fly off my bands."

"Bands? Damn. You're _that _Winter. You're one of Amazon's kids, aren't you? I thought I recognized the name," he said before she could reply. "And you chose our little town to play in?"

"That going to be a problem?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure yet. Just now, I think a lot of people are probably glad you were here."

"Uh-huh. And the….perps?"

"Like I said, you might want your lawyer ready to handle complaints. You always get them when norms are handled by metas."

"I'll call my mother. She still handles all my legal issues," she told him. "Is that all?"

"Just now, I'd say keep yourself available, and you might want to get yourself checked out," he said, eyeing her somewhat shredded blouse. Especially around her wrists. "But I doubt you're hurt. Are you?"

"Well, my wardrobe budget just got hammered," she smirked, holding up one arm, and noting the shredded sleeve of her favorite blouse. "I actually work for a living, you know. I'm not actually one of the active League members."

"I know the feeling. You might want to get out of here. Forensics will be coming in, and they hate civilians more than most. Then, too, the media will be here very soon."

"I'll bet," she drawled, and headed for the door.

"One last question, though, Winter. Did you know something was going down here today?"

"Didn't have a clue till one of them burst into our class, and started shooting at us," she told him.

He nodded, and turned to start commanding the men around him as they began clearing the building. Most of the baddies, she noted, had to be carried out. She tried not to feel too bad about that.

"Ada," Pinky shouted, and rushed over with an EMT's blanket still around her slender shoulders as she fiercely hugged her as Adana blushed at the contact as everyone turned their way to just gape. "You're like a real hero! I can't believe you….! And then you….! And, you…..! Are you okay," she finally asked, looking her up and down as one of the faculty came over, and eyed her before nodding to one side.

"I'm fine, Pinky. Let me go see what Dr. Sanders needs. 'Kay?"

"Sure thing. Hey, and….best buds. Right? We have got to have a serious talk, girlfriend, because you have seriously been holding out!"

No one else nearby said a word as she shook her head at her unlikely friend, and followed the dean to one side of the crowd well away from the arriving cameras, and other officials.

"So. You're a meta?"

"Yes, sir," she nodded.

"Are you….undercover here, or something?"

"No. I really am here to get an education," she assured the man.

"You knew nothing about those…..thugs? Nothing in advance that might have prepared us?"

"No. They surprised me, too. I actually chose this town because it seemed about as far away from the usual….chaos as I could get. I thought I could live quietly here," she sighed.

"I see," Dr. Ian Sanders nodded. "Are you an active hero, or….?"

"I have provisional status with the local League teams, but that's only my mother's conciliation toward government regulations. I really do want to just live a….normal life. Well, as normal as I can," she added ruefully.

The older man nodded, then nodded again.

"Officially, we'll have to….investigate this entire matter, and your…ah, other identity with the university's board. Unofficially, I want to thank you. You did save a lot of lives today," he said somberly.

Adana grimaced as she saw the first stretcher coming out, the sheet pulled up to cover the body.

"Not all of them," she said quietly, knowing it wasn't a gunman.

"You obviously did what you could," Ian Sanders told her. "And as I said, unofficially, you have my gratitude. I'm sure most of those students you rescued feel the same way."

Adana heard one of the injured men captured howling in pain and fury as he was brought out next. Badly injured, and strapped to a stretcher, he was still struggling as if he might somehow break free.

"Not fair," seemed to be his constant refrain. Followed by, "I'll sue!"

Adana only sighed.

She'd better call her mother, and Captain Atom. The senior member in charge of the local chapter in this region.

She could just imagine how both of them were going to take her actions that had exposed her identity just over one month into her freshman year.

_To Be Continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**4**

"…..still can't believe you're _Amazon's_ daughter! I mean, seriously! That is _so_ cool," Pinky was gushing as she followed Adana to her table at the cafeteria for the evening meal.

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Adana sighed, sitting down, and eyeing the tray ruefully. "Honestly, it's not."

"But…._Amazon_! I still remember when she still fought with the Leauge. She was so…..so…..awesome! So, have you been to Paradise? Isn't that what you call the island? Paradise?"

"Themyscira," she sighed, and reached for her milk as she eyed her tray as the entire cafeteria seemed to be eyeing the pair of them. Or rather, her. "Paradise Island was what some guy labeled it when he first heard Princess Diana came from an island of women."

"And they're all warriors? All Amazons? Right?"

"Uh, yeah," she sighed. "But we are more than warriors. We're physicians. Poets. Astronomers. We all have…..other interests."

Pinky grinned.

"Any chance I could ever visit?"

"That….wouldn't be my call."

"Why not? Don't you go back on Spring Break, or something?"

"Actually, I go to my mom's home in Tylerton."

"Really? _Amazon_ actually lives in Tylerton?"

"Pinky, we're not heroes. We're just….?"

"Super-powered Amazon warriors," the girl's tone rose in awe.

"Like I said. It's not all it's cracked up to be."

"So, when you said your gran was all super-strict, and all…..?"

"I spent all my time on Themyscira training, and learning a warrior's discipline. Honestly, it takes a lot of effort to keep myself in check. My strength can be….difficult to control at times. When my meta-gene first manifested, I couldn't even pick up a can of soda without crushing it," she said, holding her milk carton up before she took a drink.

"Wow. That could suck. So, you really don't have any boyfriends," Pinky asked bluntly.

"No….."

"Girlfriends," she asked, her eyes overly bright.

"Jeez, Pinky," she groaned. "What are you, trying out for the National Enquirer?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Nothing. I had some….issues with the press when I first….manifested. It's not something I ever expected."

"You're kidding," her very peculiar friend exclaimed. "You're Amazon's daughter! You had to know that you'd…. Well, be like her?"

"Actually, I was born….pretty normal. My older sister was the powerhouse from birth."

"Do I know her? Is she a hero?"

"She's….ah, in undercover work," she demurred. "Anyway, I was kind of a shrimp. About as normal, and average as you can get. Until….I wasn't."

"That had to be so cool."

"Scariest day of my life," Adana murmured.

"Really? I'd think it would have been awesome."

Adana smiled blandly as she eyed the girl.

"In ways, it was….interesting. I learned a lot about my mom that I had never understood before then. Of course, meeting Queen Hippolyta was about as scary as it could get, too. I had heard stories about her, and, of course, you know the mythologies."

"She's in myths?"

Adana sighed.

"You haven't read the Greek myths?"

"I know about the Greek gods. They're the one that turned that statue into Wonder Woman, right?" Adana sniggered.

"Grandmother actually hates that story," she told her, but didn't tell her why.

The truth, after all, was far less romantic, and a lot more tragic. Tragic enough that even Diana would not speak of it. The only reason she learned about it was because she had been reading in the archives during a rare break, and ran across the Queen's own journal of certain critical years in the early days of Themyscira.

"Right. Wonder Woman is your grandmother. That is so weird. And so cool. Suddenly, all that bowing, and stuff makes sense. So, do you know who your mom's dad was, then? I mean, I've heard all kinds of guesses over the years, but no one ever…."

"Pinky, some things I'm just not free to share. I hope you understand?"

"Oh. Oh, yeah. Secret identities, and all. That's cool. What about your dad?"

Adana just stared.

"Sorry. Still, seriously, I'm really, really glad you are who are you are, Adana. I mean, you saved my life. You saved everyone."

"Not everyone," she said quietly, the death toll ending at twenty-three after they cleared the building after that attack. That was not counting the two dead madmen. One, indirectly, at her hands. The man she had flung aside upstairs had cracked his skull, and it went unnoticed until too late while the paramedics worked on his back and hip.

She still found it hard to care.

To her mind, he had been just one more bully with a gun who wouldn't have hesitated to kill more people if given the chance.

"Hey, you saved a lot of lives. Mine, included. It could have been a lot worse if you hadn't been there," Pinky said in a very serious tone now. She reached across the table, put a hand over hers, and said, "So, seriously. Thanks, and thanks forever."

"Thanks forever," she chuckled.

"Knew she was a dyke," a certain, perfectly coiffured blonde strolled past, eyeing her coolly. "Guess it only figures, being one of _those_ women."

"Wow, just when you think Barbie can't get any dimmer," Pinky declared as Adana just blushed.

"What did you call me, you waste?"

"What makes you think I would bother talking about you," Pinky asked less than innocently as the blonde glared.

"Dykes," the blonde sniffed, and walked on with her three usual friends.

"Don't let her get to you," Adana told her.

"Hey, I was going to tell you that," Pinky declared, and stuffed a French fry into her mouth. "I mean, seriously? That girl gives new meaning to shallow."

"I'm not arguing," Adana drawled, but noted the brunette with the other girls looked back, giving her a wistful expression.

She recognized her as one of those she had gotten out during the shooting yesterday.

The entire cafeteria suddenly fell completely silent as Adana felt a peculiar sensation behind her, and groaned as she shook her head. She knew it was coming, but was hoping for something a bit more low-key than the very obvious hero now standing behind her just then.

"Captain," she sighed as Pinky just stared over her head with hugely rounded eyes. "Couldn't you have just called?"

"I felt this required a more _personal_ interview, Ms. Winter. Would you come with me? Now," the silvery hero as ageless as some of the League demigods remarked in that grim, stern manner that never relaxed. Never changed.

And she had thought J'onn was bad the first time she had met him.

"I can't finish….?"

"Now, if you please, Ms. Winter. Your mother is waiting, too."

"Uh, where?"

"Just step outside."

"Fine," she said, and eyed Pinky. "I'll be back in time for our study session," she told her. "I hope."

"That depends entirely on you," Captain Atom remarked in that unyielding tone of his.

"Hey, so does that mean you are joining the League," Pinky asked, following her without hesitation as they headed for the nearest exit.

Everyone else just watched.

"You might want to stand back, Miss," Captain Atom told her as he held up a hand after they took several steps from the door to stand just off the walk. "You wouldn't want to be caught in the beam."

"Beam," Pinky echoed in confusion.

Just before her best friend, and the silvery stick-in-the-mud just vanished in a haze of iridescent light.

"Whoa," Pinky exclaimed.

"Was that….Adana," Lena, one of Adana's roommates exclaimed as she stood there, just about to head to the cafeteria herself for the evening meal.

"Yeah. She had...League business," Pinky told her. "Can you believe that guy, though?"

"So, they really do have a teleporter," Lena exclaimed, looking up at the darkening sky as if she might somehow see something more. "And everyone always said that was just an urban legend."

"Yeah," Pinky said, and found herself looking up, too.

Because if the teleporter was real, then that meant they could have only gone one place.

A place the government continued to refuse to admit even existed.

**X**

"I wasn't playing hero," she persisted as Diana, and her mother both grilled her with the Captain just standing there eyeing her as if waiting his turn. "I was trying to save my classmates, and get them out alive. That's all."

"You pointedly, and purposely engaged those men," Captain Adam pointed out. "That's according to your own report."

"I was defending myself, and those with me," she countered.

"You put three people in a hospital, in critical condition. Two more died….."

Adana stared at the man, her expression darkening.

"I recognize that one was accidental," the silvery hero said as he easily interpreted her expression. "The one you questioned, however, has a very valid case against you for abuse of powers."

"Because a bunch of guys armed with explosives, and mini-guns are so laudable," she spat.

"Motivations are not relevant here. You deliberately attacked a man, and injured him to the point of causing death. Your own report confirms that, and gives his family a solid case against you."

"So, what? I should have let him, and his buddies kill everyone so they could be on TV?"

"What," her mother blurted out.

"I overheard one of them crowing they would be on all the channels. He apparently had no more motivation than media fame. The political statements they made are what's irrelevant," she tossed back at Captain Atom.

He only stared in turn, his expression as unyielding as ever.

"Adana," Diana said as she stepped forward again. "I ask you, as your princess, _and_ an Amazon warrior, was that encounter truly necessary?"

"If I had not stepped in, everyone in that building would have died. Maybe even more since they had a lot of ordinance, and explosives, and weren't planning on survivors," she told Diana. "What I did, I had to do, grandmother. I couldn't just turn my back, and let those people die."

"And yet people did die."

"Look, I did my best," Adana protested when the energy-based hero tossed that barb back at her. "I'm not exactly one of you, you know? I never expected to have to….."

"She makes a very telling point," Amanda told them as they turned when J'onn entered the conference room.

"Indeed," the Martian nodded. "Every account in the charges filed presupposes she is an active, and voluntary member of the League. In point of fact, she is herself a civilian engaged in no more active duty than attending a college class. That undermines many, if not all of the more potent charges against her from the start."

"Thank you," she nodded at J'onn. "Captain Uptight here can't seem to make that distinction."

Diana and her mother both smirked, and J'onn merely lifted a single, arched brow to express his own reaction.

"All the same, I want her to start training with our other active provisionals. If she's going to…..defend herself again, I expect her to know how to do so without endangering lives. _Any_ lives," Captain Atom added pointedly.

"I see no harm in that," Diana agreed.

"It would help fine-tune her own training, and keep her from….slipping up," Amanda agreed.

"I don't get a say in this?"

"You get to say _yes_," Captain Atom told her. "Or, you can plead your case in court when you're inevitably charged with manslaughter. Or worse."

She glared all the more.

"For saving lives?"

"For _taking_ them," he spat back, in the same toneless voice. "We have a mandate to operate as special deputies in law enforcement. We are not vigilantes, or killers."

"So, how long did you practice to get that down," Adana demanded after she just stared at him for a moment.

"Get what down," the man asked her.

"That arrogant, 'I'm always right, you never are,' routine," she huffed, and turned, and stalked toward the door. "If we're done, I still have a test to study for," she shot, and her mother reached out, and put a hand on her shoulder. "And I missed dinner!"

"Honey, we are trying to help you here. You could use the extra training, because I think it's obvious your powers are still fluctuating. You know that. This is only for your benefit."

"Fine. Fine. But it better not interfere with my schedule," she huffed. Then glared back at Captain Atom, and stated, "And I know you know it. So, wait for my free time, or better yet….. Just wait."

She didn't look back as she headed for the bridge, and the teleport pad.

"Willful," Captain Atom grumbled as the door shut behind her.

"She reminds me of me," Diana smiled.

"Gods help us," J'onn deadpanned.

The women laughed. Captain Atom just shook his head.

"I was thinking of Kara," he said quietly.

"Well, she turned out pretty well," Diana pointed out.

"I wasn't thinking of how she turned out. But, rather, how she began," he complained.

"She's still young. Give her time."

"I have no issue with that," Diana told her daughter. "But Captain Atom is right. She does need more training. Like it, or not, she was unnecessarily sloppy, and needs more discipline. Even mother noted that one before she finally let her come home."

Amanda sighed.

"I know. I know. It's not helping that she has so much more to cope with. It's not like Tala, who grew up with her powers."

"Perhaps it was the mingled bloodlines? Or perhaps we're just seeing how an involved meta-gene reacts with _divinely_ magical gifts," J'onn told them. "Either way, I cannot see any reason to keep her out of the usual training sessions."

"I'll assign her a team, and a practice regimen tomorrow. After I study the best likely fit," Captain Atom told them as somber as ever.

"Just keep her away from Dreadnaught," Amanda suggested.

"You have a reason for that request," Captain Atom all but demanded.

"You know my daughter's past. If that….lothario tries to put any of his moves on her, she might stuff him out an airlock."

Captain Atom only stared at her. While hard to tell, it looked like he had just cut off a slight smirk.

**X**

"How did you do," Pinky asked as Lena came out of the building to join her and Adana.

"I think I did pretty good," Lena told her as the younger girl walked with them toward the quad. "You?"

"Well, pretty good, I think. But we both know who likely aced it."

They both looked at Adana, who just glanced over at them as she looked up from a book she was reading as she walked.

"Still reading? Didn't you just finish the last midterm," Pinky demanded. "What is so…."

She snapped the manual closed, and sighed.

"League homework," Lena asked knowingly.

"Yeah," Adana grumbled. "Silver-britches is a real stickler for regs. He's worse than Professor Hammed about all the dotted 'I's,' and stuff."

"In short, he's a jerk," Pinky declared officiously, having had that history teacher herself.

"Pretty much. For someone made out of living energy, he's got a stick up his backside that must be made out of titanium-steel."

"Really? Living energy," Lena remarked. "How does that even work? I mean, he looked…. Well, normal."

"I don't know myself. Really, I'm not actually involved in the real League….."

Both girls eyed the thick manual in her hand.

"Uh-huh," Pinky drawled.

"Trust me, it's just a bunch of glorified jocks, all trying to outmuscle each other to be number one. Or that's what it seems like to me," she huffed.

"But….isn't your mother a member?"

"And your grandmother," Pinky added, still trying to decide if Adana's threat to kick her into orbit if she called her 'Princess' again was real, or not.

"Not an active member. She's more like a….legal liaison now."

"But Wonder Woman is still active? Right," Lena asked her.

"Yeah, but even she works more on her own, than with the others these days. Lots of diplomatic stuff, too."

"So, have you met _him_ yet?"

"Him," Adana asked as she looked back at Pinky.

"The Big Guy! The S. The _first_ Leaguer."

"Kal-El? Yeah, I've….seen him around," she sighed. "Honestly, he's like anyone else."

"Yeah. If they flew in space, juggled mountains, and could vaporize you with a glance."

Adana laughed outright now, shaking her head at Lena.

"Seriously? You think he juggles mountains?"

"Well, he could," the girl sputtered.

"Well, boulders, maybe," Adana agreed. "But could you imagine…."

She groaned as she eyed her new necklace watch, which was chirping annoyingly.

"No way," she protested, "Not when I just got a day off."

"What is that," Lena asked.

"You might want to stand back," Adana told them. "Silver-butt is sticking his nose in my weekend again."

Even as the girls stood back, Adana stepped off the walk into the grass, and then lifted her watch to speak into it.

"Okay, I'm clear."

And promptly vanished.

"What was that," Barb Wilson demanded as the blonde girl walked up behind them just then. "Was that lightning, or something?"

"Or something," Pinky agreed, and turned her back on her to walk away.

Lena glanced back at her, and walked after her friend, too.

"Wait," Barb called after them, and actually loped to catch up to them.

"What now, your highness," Pinky demanded.

"I…. I needed to talk to your friend. The…..strong girl."

"Adana. Her name is Adana," Pinky told her curtly. "And she doesn't like posers, either."

"I…. Look, I really need to talk to her. I'm….."

"What?"

Barb stared at the two of them that stopped to regard her. Lena warily, and Pinky with blatant hostility.

"I'm in trouble."

"So get an abortion."

Barb blushed furiously.

"Not that kind of trouble," she hissed. Looking around, she moved closer, and said, "Someone's trying to kill me," she said, and only then did Pinky notice the usually perfectly groomed girl looked less than perfect.

"No way," she blurted.

"I need help."

"So, call the cops. What about your dad? Call him. Or…."

"My dad's disappeared, and the cops don't believe me," Barb told her. "Please. I'm serious. And I'm desperate. I don't even know what's going on, but….I'm not joking. Please, I really need help."

"You just missed her," Lena told her. "That lightning. She got teleported out for some….League business."

"Then it is true. She's a real hero. Please, tell her I need help. Please," Barb all but begged, and looked ready to start crying now.

"Jeez, don't bawl," Pinky frowned. "Come on. You can come with us. I'm sure she'll be back pretty soon. But I still wouldn't hold my breath. It's not like she's….."

Barb just stared at her, looking genuinely frightened.

"Never mind. Come on."

"Thank you," Barb gushed at them. "I won't forget this. I won't!"

"Whatever," Pinky said, leading her toward their dorm.

Neither of them saw the two men standing near the parking lot, staring their way.

_To Be Continued…_


	5. Chapter 5

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**5**

"This isn't training," Adana complained as she sat up, clad only in a blue body-stocking without any sigils on it. "It's sexual harassment!"

"I call it fun, Jugs," the stocky teen in golden armor that covered all but his very squared jaw grinned.

Dreadnaught was a young man who had inherited mystic armor that made him an unstoppable force of destruction. Rather than follow his late uncle's felonious footsteps, he chose to become a hero, and went to work stomping on anyone that threatened his neighborhood. After more than a few jaywalkers ended up in ICU, the League conscripted him to properly train him, and ensure he stayed on the proper path.

"I don't know," Ember murmured, the slight young man with a starburst on his dark red costume shook his head as he saw the warning in the way Adana's dark blue eyes got darker, and began to glitter. When she stood up, both fists were clenched, and the master of fire in any form stepped back as he saw the danger when the young brunette didn't bother rubbing her chest where Dreadnaught had slammed a palm into her to both strike, and grope as one when he attacked her.

"Not my fault the chick can't take a hit. I heard she was tough. Like Wonder Babe, but so far, I am not impres…"

Dreadnaught's howl preceded him as he slammed through two bulkheads, and bounced off a third, landing at J'onn J'ones' feet.

"You just cannot help yourself, can you, Robert?"

"It's….Dreadnaught," the young man grinned crookedly, and fell over, out cold.

The Martian sighed, and regarded the ruptured bulkheads, grateful the training room was deep in the heart of the new Watchtower, and not close to an outer bulkhead. He had already guessed that Adana's strength was very close to Diana's, even surpassing her own mother's, and yet they had not seen any evidence of it in her training to date.

Until now.

"What happened," he asked as he walked into the training chamber where the VR had shut down after the wall had been ruptured.

Ember cringed, a bit wary of the Martian for reasons of his own as Adana just glared.

"He…._touched_ me," she spat, fists still clenched.

"I see," he remarked blandly, and turned to the fourth member of the team. "Gordon," he asked the older teen that went by Spark, for his ability to channel and control all things electric. Along with the juice that ran them. "What is your assessment?"

Gordon, actually having some more field experience than any of the other three, was their unofficial team leader.

"Robert did grope her, and then slammed her physically, and verbally. You do know how he is, sir," Gordon remarked bluntly.

"Indeed. Still, Adana, you have to learn to cope with….such touching. And such mocking. Talk to your mother, or any of the other female members. They can help you. Because I assure you, the criminals you will face…."

"Look, I don't want to face _anyone_," she sputtered. "I don't want to be on a team. I just want to…."

"_Live a normal live_," Ember, and Spark both said in tandem.

"Well, I do," she huffed.

"Let me tell you something about that," Phase, their current training instructor, and senior advisor said as she passed through the walls of the observation booth, and levitated down to join them.

Adana turned to the white-haired woman that didn't look much older than she did, and shrugged.

"Even normal women have to cope with misogynists, and misanthropes. Unlike you, they don't always have the strength, or ability to deal with their problems. They have to use their minds. They have to learn to cope by using the system against itself."

J'onn said nothing as the woman lectured her, pointedly ignoring the two male teens around her.

"Mom gave me all the same lectures, Phase," she sighed. "But, somehow, I don't think any kind of passive resistance will ever penetrate Robert's head."

The woman smiled faintly now.

"Dreadnaught is an entirely different case, and level of male. Consider him….clueless. And harmless."

"Harmless," she sputtered.

"Which of you just got shoved through a wall?"

"Two walls," J'onn remarked dryly, eyeing Adana again.

"Oh. Uh, guess I…..lost my temper," she sighed.

"Again," her two teammates declared.

"It might cheer you to know you are getting a fifth member to round out your team," J'onn said before anyone else could go on.

Still, it surprised her that he wasn't chewing her out about the bulkheads. Then again, that wasn't J'onn's way.

Of course when her mother heard about it…

"And it's another female," J'onn said as he glanced to Gordon.

"Cool," Ember smiled. "Do we know her?"

"She is new, too. She just manifested her meta-gene. She's been using the code-name Gaia."

"Whoa," Ember murmured. "Kind of gutsy, calling yourself after a goddess, or something, isn't it?"

"She is a rare elemental, and can command all four major elements at once," J'onn told them. "Her potential power is quite impressive, but she has….issues."

"Don't we all," Gordon sighed.

"She is an orphan. Her family was murdered in a drive-by by warring gangs," J'onn told them. "So, be patient."

"Poor girl," Adana murmured.

"Poor gangs," Ember murmured. "How many did she take out when she…..blossomed?"

"All of them," J'onn told him.

Not one of them had a thing to say to that.

"Unfortunately, or fortunately for her, the authorities couldn't hold her, and didn't want to try. They turned her over to us to train, and guide, hoping we could keep her from becoming another Poison Ivy."

"Who," Ember and Spark both frowned.

"You guys don't know Ivy," Adana asked her teammates. "She practically endangered the world as often as that freak Lex Luthor in her own way."

"Yes. Fortunately, as she grew older, she matured, and retreated to willing isolation in the South American rain forests," J'onn added.

"So, that's why all the clear-cutting suddenly stopped a while back," Phase murmured. "I wondered."

"If you will come with me, I will introduce you to your new teammate," J'onn told them. "Meanwhile, Adana, I'll leave you to explain the….bulkheads to Captain Atom before you return to the planet."

She groaned, and shook her head.

"Sucks to be you," Gordon told her bluntly.

"Say, when is she going to get a code-name? I mean, we all got one, but she still hasn't….."

"I'm just training to fine-tune my control over…."

"We know," both boys groaned.

"One never knows what might come up in your future," J'onn told her as they left the training chamber, and followed him down the corridor. "It might be wise to have a….code-name to refer to when you establish your….civilian identity."

"My civilian identity is established, and it's the only one I want, or need," she grumbled.

"Even _Amazon_….."

"Don't mention my mom," she muttered at Gordon.

The young man sighed, and shook his head.

"_Give her time_," J'onn's voice spoke for him alone.

"_She's had months. She's only getting worse, and her stubbornness is threatening the cohesiveness of this team_," Gordon replied mentally himself. "_You have to know that_."

"_Every team has its issues. You will find a way to manage. Just as we did at the start_."

Gordon wanted to roll his eyes at that one. No way could he compare their group to the Big Seven who had started the League. No way could their dysfunctional group be anything close to what they must have been.

J'onn said no more as they took a lift to the next level, Dreadnaught silently joining them along the way as he just stared hard at Adana, and kept rubbing his jaw every few minutes. He had, of course, already been mentally briefed by J'onn when he woke him, and summoned him to follow them.

"Inside. People, this is Gaia. Your new teammate. Gaia, this is Team Gamma. Gordon, or Spark. He is team leader. He has real field experience, so listen to him. Ember is relatively new, too. Then there is Dreadnaught," he said, glancing at the still stunned young man in the golden armor. "And, this is Adanna."

"No hero name," Gaia asked her quietly as the slender black teen with bobbed, black hair that barely brushed her shoulders.

"I'm no hero," Adana told her just as quietly.

The teen studied her, and nodded.

"I saw you in the newspapers. You are a hero. A good one, I think."

"The papers…."

"I don't pay attention to what those hacks wrote. I read between the lines," the younger girl told her. "Sometimes, it's what isn't said that's important."

"So, what's your deal," Dreadnaught chose to regain his usual lack of subtlety, or tact just then. "Because we already got one guy that tosses around fire. It's not like we need another…."

Gaia's eyes glowed silver for a moment, and Robert frowned.

"What….?"

He staggered dizzily, and stepped backward.

"What did you….?"

He fell flat on his face, and stayed there.

"What did you do," Adana asked, astonished at how easily she had just dropped the magically-powered teen powerhouse.

"I just turned a tenth of a percent of his blood plasma to alcohol, and it intoxicated him so fast it overwhelmed his senses," the girl told them.

"You can do that," Ember exclaimed.

"Fluid, in any form, is under my control. I could freeze your blood in your veins. Boil it. Or turn it to dust."

"Let's not get too extreme," J'onn cut in. "Gaia, you'll be working, and training with Team Gamma as of now. Gordon will introduce you to your training advisor, and show you around. I need to go. She paused to eye Adana. "No more attacking your team members. And... Try not to kill one another."

The brunette blushed as Ember continued to gape at the new member of their team.

"You know, I thought you were being cocky using the name of a goddess," he told her as the Martian left. "Only if you can do all that with just….liquids, I don't even want to know what you can do with the rest of your gifts."

"So, why not something like Elemental, then," Gordon asked. "If you do use all four….?"

"It sounded stupid," Gaia told them. "And let's face it, it's been used by more than a few heroes, and villains in the past. I wanted something more….appropriate," the younger girl told them. "That a problem?"

"Not at all," Ember told her quickly.

"It's your choice," Gordon told her. "I was just curious. That's all."

"So, Spark? You like that old Static guy that used to fly around?"

"Hardly. I control anything electronic, digital, and all things electrical, along with electricity."

"Ember, I get. Flame, huh?"

"Heat, too, in general. I can amp it, or steal it. And control it any way I want."

"Me, too," Gaia nodded. "Maybe we could….compare notes, and see if we can teach each other some new tricks."

"That'd be cool," Ember agreed. "We were just in training, but it's probably going to be a while before se can use the VR chamber again."

"What happened?"

"Did you happen to be around to notice the sudden banging around here earlier?"

She turned back to Gordon, and nodded. "I did feel some reverberations. I was told it wasn't serious, though."

"Ada here put our resident stud through _two_ bulkheads," Gordon said, nodding at Dreadnaught.

"So, he must be tougher than he looks," she murmured.

"He's very powerful. So is Adana," Ember told her.

"You really need a name, then. I mean, Adana?"

"You should know," Adana started.

"She only got roped into training because Captain Marvel went ballistic after she killed a couple of terrorists stopping those guys that attacked her college. He felt she needed to learn…..ah, finesse," Ember told her.

"I really am trying to live a normal life," Adana sighed, leaning against a conference table.

"So, you're in college," Gaia murmured. "Cool. I'm hoping to go myself when I….if I graduate."

"Hey, if I could manage it, I'm sure you can," Adana told her.

"I hope you're right. I'll admit, I didn't technically kill anyone, but…..I put a lot of guys in the hospital for a long time when I took out those stupid gang-bangers in my neighborhood."

"I'm sure they deserved it," Adana told her.

"Well, I thought so. The law didn't," she muttered.

"So, what did you do," Spark asked.

"I considered just wiping them out. I mean, I could do almost literally anything to them, now, and they would….be history. Dust. Less than dust. But….they wouldn't suffer," she said. "Not the way me, or those other families have to suffer because they wanted to bring their stupid war to our neighborhood."

"So, you…..?"

She eyed Gordon, his light blue costume, and sighed.

"I turned their bones to crystal. Every gang member I could find, I turned their bones into very fragile crystal. You figure it out."

"Ouch. So if they did….anything…..?"

"All their bones started breaking, fracturing. Shattering," she said with a faint smile. "They all screamed a lot," she said, trying to sound neutral.

"Works for me," Adana murmured.

"Well, they made me change their bones back. Of course, I did, but….even I can't heal bones already broken. A lot of them are still in traction. And will be a long time. Maybe it will…..teach them something."

"We can hope," Gordon agreed. "Now, why don't you 'fix' our resident misogynist, and let's go meet Phase. Even if we can't exercise, we can get your up to speed. Is that going to be your...costume," he asked, eyeing the younger teen's snug jeans, halter, and worn leather jacket.

"Works for me," Gaia shrugged.

"If we're not training, I'm going back," Adana told them. "I am finishing up midterms."

"Thought you were already finished," Ember asked.

Adana shot a cold glare at them.

"Gamma," Captain Atom said as he walked into the room before she could escape. "You have an assignment."

"An assignment," Ember said, looking eager, and excited.

"Sir, are you sure…..?"

"Very," he cut Gordon off. "I'll give you the briefing, then Adana and I need to talk," he said, eyeing her frankly.

She groaned, knowing that expression.

"First, wake up Dreadnaught. I didn't think even you could knock him out that long," he accused Adana.

"Maybe his head isn't as thick as he thinks," Adana said before anyone could advise him his suspicion about what happened to the teen wasn't accurate.

"I'll wake him up," Gaia said, slightly surprised no one pointed fingers at her.

"Do it, this is serious," he said, and walked over to a computer console, and pushed a flash drive into the machine.

"Back with us, Dreadnaught," he asked.

"Yeah, Cap. Don't know why I'm so….woozy….."

"I can imagine," he said, eyeing Adana again, his disapproval evident.

Adana dropped into a chair she had yet to occupy as the others sat down to study the monitor that flared to life as she only folded her arms over her chest, and stared back.

"This is Barbara Wilson," he said as Adana's jaw all but dropped as she stared at the blonde beauty queen that attended her college. "Adana, as of now, you're her bodyguard."

"I'm what," she sputtered, jerking to her feet, and glaring. "No way, no how!"

"Sit…..down," Captain Atom spat at her, sounding as if he might even be a little angry just then.

Adana slowly sat down

"Two days ago, Daniel Wilson disappeared," he went on, another picture coming up on the monitor to show an older man with silvering, sandy temples. "The League is very concerned about his disappearance. Very concerned. Mr. Wilson is not only the CEO of Gen-Tech, Unlimited, a major bio-chemical concern. He is also the chief presidential advisor on all things meta for the White House. We do not yet know who took him, or why, but it cannot be a good thing."

"So, you think someone will come after his daughter so they can use her for leverage if the old man isn't cooperating," Robert realized.

"Accurately, if simplistically stated. We'll be dividing you up for this one. Gaia, I want you and Spark to follow any leads into the kidnapping. See what you can find out, and if you can locate who did this, and why. Ember, you and Dreadnaught will be backup, and stay incognito in the area in case Adana might need you. She, meanwhile, will stay close to the Wilson girl, and protect her against any attempts to abduct her."

"Ember's not quite old enough to hang around colleges," Dreadnaught told him. "You do know that, don't you? Me, I'd fit right in, but….flame-boy is a bit…."

"You will be going in as a prospective student that is looking to transfer," Dreadnaught was told. "Your brother, Ember, will be with you as a prospective future student, since you are his guardian."

"Cool," Robert grinned at the younger teen.

Ember only closed his eyes, and shook his head, foreseeing all manner of complications with this one.

"As of now, you are on a major, and active case, ladies and gentlemen. Training, for the moment, is over. So prepare yourself. And I do expect you to act professionally at all times. Remember, lives are now resting in your hands."

He looked them over, and then purposely eyed Adana.

"The rest of you can go. Prepare yourselves, and see J'onn on the bridge. He'll have your undercover identities for those that need them, and give you a final briefing on what to expect. Adana, you'll stay here, and have a final word with me," he said as somberly as ever as his silver eyes studied her.

Adana ducked her head, and sighed.

Why did she feel like she was back in high school with the big shot jocks walking over her?

To his credit, Captain Atom didn't say a word until the door had closed behind her four teammates. Then he walked over, and actually sat down beside her.

"I don't want to lecture you."

She said nothing to that.

"I know you have to understand that you could have endangered everyone on this station today with that stunt."

She grimaced, and nodded.

"Yes, sir. I know, I lost my temper. I thought…. I felt I had it under control, but Robbie…."

"Dreadnaught might appear to be a careless, and callous sort, but he's smarter than you think, girl."

"What," she sputtered.

"How long have you been holding back? How long have you been going through the motions, pretending to cooperate? He wanted to see if you really could hold your own if it came down to it. Do you think we put teams together arbitrarily here? You have to depend on one another. Trust one another. How, Adana, can those people trust you when you won't even commit yourself in a trial mission?"

"But I'm not even trying to be a…..a hero. I just…."

"Do you think your mother woke up one morning, and just decided to put on her costume? She will probably tear me apart, but I'm going to tell you something it's likely past time you knew."

Adana said nothing as he seemed to steel himself, and then told her, "It started the day your father was murdered."

"Murdered," she hissed, eyes round with confusion.

_To Be Continued…._


	6. Chapter 6

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**6**

"Hey, guys," Adana greeted them, walking into her room after returning to campus.

She stopped even as she stepped into the room, one hand still on the door, staring as she realized that Barb Wilson was sitting in her room with Lena, Pinky, and Carla. She looked, she realized, like she had been crying.

"Uh, Barb? What is it," she asked.

"Thank God," the blonde rasped. "You have to help me. No one believes me, but….someone kidnapped my dad, and now I think…. I think they're after me. My car blew up while I was in town. Someone has been through my room. I know they have, even if my roommate doesn't. I can just tell. And last night, I dropped a book, and….. And even as I….bent over, something pinged off a wall. They shot at me, Ada! _Me!_ I swear, someone is after me, and…..I need help," the blonde all but whimpered.

"Someone is seriously outside their comfort zone," Carla said quietly. "How about it, Ada? Think you can put up with helping Barb out? I mean, you are…."

"Don't say hero. But…. Yes," she said, walking over and putting a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "I will help. I'll do everything I can. First, let's go to your room, and let me….look around. For clues," she said when the girl frowned. "It might help us figure this out."

"But….what kind of clues would they leave in my room?"

"Spycams. Wireless mikes. Subliminal beacons. Jeez, the list is endless, depending on who they are, and what they're after," Pinky told her.

"Exactly. So, let's go look around. Don't worry, I'm here to help," she said, deciding the less said about her briefing, the better. Barb seemed nervous enough, and if she thought the League was worried, she might just go off the proverbial tracks.

"Thank you. Thank you. I know…. I know I've ridden you a lot the past few months, but…. I really appreciate this. I really do," she sniffed as she rose to her feet, and looked at the door.

"Something wrong?"

"You first," the blonde asked when she gave a weak smile.

To her surprise, Pinky said nothing.

"Afterward, I'll have a friend check out your car. And I want to see where you said you were shot at, too."

"So, you're really into this…..hero stuff?"

She sighed, and smiled blandly at Lena.

"I'm just trying to help someone that needs it, Lena. It occurs to me it might be connected to…..those nut jobs that attacked the poli-sci building earlier this year."

"But….I'm not even in politics!"

"But your father is," Adana told her. "In a big way."

"How do you know that," she gasped.

"Provisional League member," Adana reminded her. "I do know what's going on that is connected to metas, and the League," she told her.

"Oh. Oh, right. So, you think those posers grabbed dad, thinking they might make a bigger statement after you shut them down last time?"

"It's possible," she murmured, though while she had grabbed at it as an excuse, she did wonder. Maybe she ought to have J'onn track down those original gunmen, and find out just who really outfitted, and funded them. Because even loons like that didn't seem the type to have access to military ordinance. Not even in this day and age.

"Barb," another girl called out as they emerged on the lower floor after Adana led the way, not too surprised that her three friends all followed. "What are you doing with those posers," the petite, perfectly groomed brunette asked. "And what happened to your hair, girl?"

"Not now, Gina," she groaned. "This is serious."

"I'll say. If Doug sees you looking like you're slumming…."

"Gina, just leave me alone," the blonde all but wailed as she ran the last few steps to her room, and started to shove her key into the lock.

"Barb, wait," Adana cried, her hearing picking up something even as the girl turned the key.

Wedding movement to instinct, she rushed forward, scooped up the blonde, and turned her back to the door even as the wooden panel creaked open. Just behind her, before she could take a single step, a small explosion went off peppering the air with wooden shrapnel that had the girls around her screaming in shock as she felt the missiles bouncing off her skin.

Straightening up, she stared back at the smoldering doorframe, and eyed the mess beyond.

If there were any clues, or any doubts, they were all gone now.

"Oh…..my…..god," Barb rasped, still clinging to her, eyes wide with fear as she looked at the ruined doorway. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," she murmured, a little surprised herself, since she had never demonstrated any invulnerability until now. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that Artemis had cut a long scar down her bicep during spear practice. "I hope no one else was in there."

"That shirt is ruined, girlfriend," Carla told her, gaping. "But there isn't a mark on you. I didn't think even Amazon was that tough," she exclaimed.

"What's ruined," Pinky said, "Is any chance of finding clues."

"Actually, someone left something behind. Hold on a minute," she said, and pulled out her necklace watch, and slid a switch upward.

"This had better be important," a somber voice declared curtly.

"Captain, it's me. Someone just tried to blow up Ms. Wilson."

"Is she all right?"

"I….shielded her. But I have to wonder if they didn't leave something behind that might give us a way to trace the bomber. Barb also mentioned someone breaking in last week. Considering they arranged an explosion the minute we mentioned investigating, I have to wonder…..?"

"I'll send a team to the dorm now. I suspect the girl is in too much danger to stay on site if they're taking overt actions against her now. Bring her to the safe house. I'll arrange for your….mutual absences. Don't forget to cover your tracks."

"Uh, yeah. I'll need to change first," she said the four girls stared at her.

"Safe house," Pinky asked, her eyes bright with curiosity.

"We're….leaving," Barb asked her, staying very close just then, barely aware of the faint trickle of blood that now flowed from a small knick on her left shoulder where a wooden sliver had just grazed her.

"Yes. I need to change, and then we'll go. I'd ask if you needed anything, but….."

They all looked into the ruined room, and Barb just stared.

"This isn't supposed to be my life," she moaned.

"We'll get you through this," Adana told her. "Trust me, you'll be fine."

"We," Pinky asked.

"Sorry, guys, but….I can't say anything just now," she said as they headed upstairs again. "From here on I have to keep this all top secret."

"Totally understand," Carla nodded.

"Totally," Pinky agreed.

"Will you be okay," Lena asked.

"Jeez, Red," Carla called her. "She just shrugged off a blast that would have tore anyone else apart. I think she's going to be fine."

"And so will you," Adana told the still pale Barb. "Trust me."

"I…. I do. You saved those other people that day. And now you've already saved me today. I trust you," Barb told her.

"What," Adana asked when she reached her room to change clothes, putting her 'worksuit' under her jeans and sweatshirt this time. Just in case.

"It's just…. I was wondering what you call yourself when you're….in costume," Barb asked. "Or is that secret, too?"

"I….don't really have a hero name, because….I never planned on being an active hero," she admitted.

"Well, you're going to need one now," Pinky declared.

"Definitely," Carla agreed.

"Amazon, Two," Pinky carelessly tried. "Nah. Kind of….wonky."

"Oh, how about….?"

"Meta. I am one, and it fits," Adana told them. "So, just call me Meta."

"Meta-Woman," Lena asked.

"Uh, kind of…..redundant. So, no," Adana told her. "I'll just stick to Meta. But only until I can retire, and go back to college, and live an ordinary life again."

All four women stared at her.

"Girlfriend," Carla predicted. "I don't think that one is in the cards."

"Nope. Not even close," Pinky agreed.

"Why can't she do both," Lena asked. "I mean, doesn't her mother do that? Normal life, and heroine?"

"Mom retired a while back," Adana said quietly, Captain Atom's words still roiling in her head.

He had told her things that made far too much sense to deny. Only they were things that her mother had never shared. Never even hinted at before now. So, why? Why would she lie about her father? What was really going on that she had to make up a story about an intimidated man running off to leave them on their own?

She was going to have to figure that one out. Even if she had to ask her face-to-face. First, however, she had to take care of the blonde that looked like she was going to try to cling to her like a second skin the way she was behaving.

"Okay, so Meta. That's cool," Pinky finally nodded.

"Let's just keep this all low-key, guys. I really am just an ordinary….person at heart."

"Yeah," Carla smirked. "You just keep telling yourself that one, girl."

"Come on, Barb," she said, turning back to the frightened girl. "We'll sneak out the front, and then meet up with some friends who will get us where we need to go."

"Shouldn't we go out the back," Barb asked uneasily.

"They'll expect that. Everyone is about to head for lunch, so we'll mingle, take off with the crowd, and then slip away while any potential spies will hopefully be busy watching the back doors."

"Wow, that is smart," Pinky declared. "Must be why you're on the honor role."

"Studying helps," Adana told her.

"For some of us," Carla smirked. "Seriously, be careful, and good luck, Ada. Uh…I mean, Meta."

"Thanks. With any luck, the League's cleaners can find a clue, and then we'll find these guys in time to get back before we miss too many classes."

Pinky sniggered.

"Only you would worry about missing classes when you're about to have an adventure."

"I don't like adventures," Barb complained, but stood very close to Adana all the same.

She had yet to notice her slightly bloody shoulder, and no one else had pointed it out either. Adana gave them credit for guessing that seeing any kind of injury might send the girl into hysterics just now, and that was why she had not mentioned it either.

"Come on. We don't want to get left behind when everyone starts out. We need to be in the middle of the crowd."

"We'll help," Carla said.

"Because you're half a crowd all by your lonesome," Pinky drawled.

"Jealous, Blondie," she grinned, flexing a big bicep.

"Astonished you find clothes that fit that well," Pinky shot back.

Adana rolled her eyes, but she was used to their byplay by now.

**X**

"What about your friends," Barb asked, now wearing a hat that covered her blonde hair tucked up inside the lowered headgear after they left the campus. She also wore the windbreaker that Adana had brought along, carrying it until they left campus, and then tucking the blonde into the cap and jacket to better hide her usual appearance.

"Didn't want to risk calling them from campus in case someone had monitors in the quad."

"But you made that other call….?"

"Yes, and it would be expected. So, while everyone is waiting on the 'cleaners' the League is sending, supposedly to hook up with us, we'll slip away, call my friends, and hopefully get away without a trace. Or, that's the plan."

"Good plan," a lean, red-haired boy in a gray sweater drawled as he walked up behind her.

"Ember?"

"Call me, Todd, Ada. We are undercover. Remember?"

"Right. What are you doing here?"

"Cap relayed your likely ploy, and had me come out to meet you so you wouldn't have to send a call that might be intercepted."

"Smart," Ada agreed.

"So, this is Ms. Wilson. Doesn't look much like her photo. Which is a good thing," he added as the blonde blushed furiously at his comment.

"You have my picture," Barb asked.

"Uh, only because the League has to know who is around us when we are….in civilian disguises," Ada adlibbed, shooting a warning glare at the master of flame.

The last thing she needed was to set the girl off in the middle of a public street by having her learn she was in the middle of a major investigation.

"So, who are you," Barb asked him as Ember/Todd turned to lead them down the block.

"Ember, gorgeous," he winked. "Robbie is waiting up the block. Here's how we're playing it. I'm going to lead you into an alley, and we'll make a show of getting into a van with tinted windows."

"A bit stereotypical, isn't it," she grumbled.

"Exactly. Which is why while I start up the engine, and drive away, you two bail out the back, and then go to the end of the alley where you'll find a back door to Maroni's Tailoring open. Go inside, go to the second door on the right, and you'll go down into a basement. Robbie's waiting there to take you to the safe house. I'll meet you after I ensure I blow off any tails. Got it?"

"Got it," she nodded as Barb just stared at him.

"Who is….Robbie?"

"Ah, he's a fellow that thinks he is the world's gift to women," Adana muttered. "He calls himself Dreadnaught."

"Dreadnaught! I saw him on TV once. They say he can't be stopped. That's he likely one of the strongest of the new metas in the world."

Ember eyed Adana, and smirked.

"Well, he thinks so," Ember said quietly.

"Let's go. Get ready to move fast," Adana told her.

"I…. Will this really work?"

"It's Cap's plan. Cap's plans are pretty much foolproof," Ember told her. "Right, Ada?"

"She's Meta now. That's her hero name," Barb told him.

"Meta, huh? Guess it's apropos," the younger teen nodded at her as they neared the alley in question. "Okay, there's the van. Remember, climb in the passenger door, and go right to the back. While I start up, you bail, and take cover until I pull out. Then get inside the shop, and meet Robbie. Any questions?"

"We got it," Adana nodded. "Just be careful, Todd. These people aren't playing games. Two explosions, and at least one close call with a sniper."

"Got it. You watch your own butt, girl."

Five minutes later, Adana pulled the door closed behind her, locked it, and then led Barb to the basement door.

"Whoa, what's with the light show," Barb cried out when they stepped into the basement off the last step as a sudden, iridescent light pulsed around them.

"Sorry. My bad. I meant to warn you," Robert said as the big teen came forward in jeans, and a tee that was stretched over his torso like a second skin. "I borrowed a scan-popper from Feral, and decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to use it."

"Scan-popper," Barb frowned at her.

Adana nodded at Robert as she answered.

"It detects any tracking beacons, or bugs, and shuts them down," she told the blonde. "Smart thinking," she told him, trying not to be impressed.

"Hey, I'm more than just a pretty face," Robert winked.

Adana just stared at him.

"Uh-huh. So, if you planned for a scan, thinking she might have been bugged, then the plan Todd gave us is obviously a blind."

"Right. Let's go back up, we'll go out the loading dock, and into a panel van waiting to make deliveries. The driver is one of ours, and he'll take us the safe house without anyone guessing we're not down in the tunnels supposedly under the shop."

"Smart," Adana had to admit again.

"I have been doing this a bit longer than you, Wonder-Clone."

"Call me that again, and I'll punch you into orbit next time," she growled.

Barb frowned at her reaction as Robert just sniggered.

"Lucky shot, girl, and we both know it."

"Save it for the next training session, Robbie. Let's go."

"Right. This way," he said, leading them back up into the shop.

**X**

"Findings?"

"We believe her meta-gene is still evolving," the man said as the agent in the dark gray suit stood in front of the men and women gather around the table.

"Still," the agent frowned.

"Three years ago, she abruptly became stronger, faster, and obviously, well….feminine. The tests from our initial probes indicate she is now even stronger than at her her initial manifestation. Faster than ever before," the scientist said, gesturing to an image of the slender girl rushing down the hall toward the two gunmen in apparent slow motion. "And, according to eye-witnesses, she now possesses a marked degree of genuine invulnerability."

"Define the degree," the government agent demanded of the man in the white coat.

"Three hours ago, she intercepted Ms. Wilson about to enter her booby-trapped quarters." He showed another clip of Ada looking down the hall, right at the door. The next one showed her speeding to intercept, and cover Barb.

"As anticipated," the agent remarked. "Which proves beyond coincidence she has an elevated degree of heightened sensory development atop all else."

"Exactly. She put herself between the explosion, and the target, and while it shredded her garments, she was not so much as scratched."

"Bruising? Evidence of hematoma? Any indication of any trauma?"

"She wasn't even blistered. And our cams got a very good look at her back when she, ahem, changed."

"Even the _Princess_ isn't that tough," a woman on the far end of the table declared.

"Suggestions?"

"It is possible that the meta-gene is being influenced in unexpected ways thanks to the influence of Amazonian magics," someone else suggested.

"Old news. Yet Amazon, and Tala Winter never showed any indication of these power levels."

"No. What about her….transformation? Turning into a girl as she did," the agent smirked coldly. "Could the-gender morphing have something to do with the elevated power levels?"

"We….aren't sure," the scientist admitted. "Geno-morphing might have something to do with it, but without direct samples, or the subject herself, we have no way to ascertain how her powers work. Or why."

"Status of containment?"

"She….disappeared."

The agent took a step closer to the table.

"I ordered direct, and continuous monitoring on both females. Are you telling me a couple of witless children managed to slip through our security grid?"

No one spoke as more than a few of the seven men and women present looked away from the agent's cold glare.

"Find her. Find them both. Wilson must be neutralized immediately before she inadvertently spills what she doesn't yet realize she knows. And I want that…..creature in our labs before the end of the week. If she is half what we surmise, she might well finally had us the key to complete power, ladies and gentlemen. And an end to the meta arms race."

No one spoke as they all stood up, and left the room.

Once the door closed behind them, he pulled out a cell phone, and opened it.

"Conners," he said after dialing a number. "Yes, she eluded us. Yes, both of them."

He cringed at the reply, and clenched his hand around the phone.

"Don't worry. I have a ploy to smoke them out again. Trust me. We'll soon have them both, and an end to the meta problem, too. Trust me," he went on after a moment. "Have I ever failed?"

He said nothing to the response, and snapped his phone closed before stalking out of the room.

_To Be Continued…_


	7. Chapter 7

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**7**

"I'm bored," Barb sighed, staring out a window away from the TV that droned in the corner of the room.

"You could be dead," Robbie drawled.

"Robbie," Adana spat at the teen lounging on the couch across the room, fixed on the television that was playing national news, but saying nothing of import to any of them. "Shut up."

"You could shut me up," he grinned.

"I doubt it. I'd be in trouble with Captain Atom again for breaking your neck," she spat.

Barb gaped at her.

"I was thinking you could cook us something. Chicks cook, right?"

"Is he kidding," Barb asked her incredulously.

"I'm afraid not. Robbie is our resident dinosaur," she grumbled. "Right out of the stone age."

"Whatever. I'm just hungry," the teen hero told her.

"You're always hungry," Adana told him.

"Magically supercharged metabolism, doll-face. What's your excuse?"

Barb sighed, and looked out the window again.

"I'll make something. Todd should be back pretty soon, and he'll be hungry, too. Want to help?"

"Uh, I'm actually not very good in the kitchen," the blonde admitted.

"Well, you can help all the same. Or do you want to sit in here with the caveman by yourself?"

Barb eyed the sandy-haired teen whose brown eyes cut, and swept over her figure. In her borrowed clothes, her having been all ruined, she looked a bit silly since Adana's clothing was actually a bit small for her.

"I'll help," she muttered dourly, and pushed to her feet.

"Keep your eyes on the box," Adana told him, nodding at the newscast still playing. "We have to know if they put anything out. Misdirection can be a clue, too."

"I know the drill. Just go make grub."

"Grub," Adana muttered, glaring back at him. "I'll make grub."

"He's a bit of a jerk, isn't he," Barb asked when she walked into the kitchen behind her. "I mean, on TV he always seemed kind of…..cool."

"Reality always sucks," Barb was told as Adana went over to pull open cabinets, and see what was available in the safe house where they had been delivered. "It's why I would rather read books, and live a normal life."

"Really? You have all that power, and you still just want to be….a housewife?"

"I didn't say that," Adana grimaced. "I was thinking of maybe doing something with bio-chemical research. Medicine. Something that could actually help people," she said, pulling things out of one of the cabinets.

"But….heroes help. You're helping me now."

"I'm trying," Adana said after a moment, pausing as she looked around for pans. "See if you can find a cake pan, or casserole dish, will you? I've never been in this place, so I'm not sure what's here."

"Okay," Barb said, surprising her by not arguing. The blonde, she guessed, was still overwhelmed by all that was happening to her of late.

"Thanks," Adana told her, and started looking through the refrigerator to see what was there, too. "Hey, cranberry juice. I love that stuff," she said, and pulled out the bottle, along with a few other things.

"Any soda?"

"Does diet count?'

"Ugh. No," Barb grimaced.

"And Pinky would have bet cash you lived on diet everything."

"Have you tasted diet soda," Barb asked her, her porcelain features wrinkling in disdain.

"Nope."

"Ugh. Seriously. I'd rather just drink water."

"I loved the water on Queen Hippolyta's island," she smiled. "It was like…. Well, it was good. Clear, and clean, and so fresh it just… Well, it was good."

"Right. Right. I did hear you were….an Amazon."

"Yeah," she murmured.

"So, why don't you have the armor like….?"

"Princess Diana?"

"Well, yeah."

"That was special armor forged by the gods. Originally, it belonged to the queen, but when Diana came to Man's World, she chose to….borrow it."

"Oh. I see. But, they couldn't make more?"

"The armor is worn only by those specially chosen by the gods, too. One champion per generation. My great grandmother is that champion just now."

"Okay. Well, I guess it…..makes sense to you guys. Uh, girls."

Adana grinned now.

"Actually, I still get confused by the whole warrior code myself. Amazons, at heart, are trained warriors. Ready to fight at any instant. Yet we practice peace, and try to use diplomacy to solve problems if given the choice."

"But….?"

"But, very few people want to sit, and talk. So, usually, we do fight."

"Okay. Have you ever…? I mean, besides those guys at school, did you ever….fight? I mean, seriously?"

"Well, our training is pretty serious. There are some parts of the island that aren't safe even for Amazons. It makes a good place to practice certain lessons."

"Oh. So, it's not all girls sitting around talking about art and culture like some guys think?"

"There is a lot of scholarship. We also take our physical training just as seriously, though. I won't tell you how freaked I was the first time I faced my trials. Training to deflect projectiles, like arrows, spears, or even bullets, is not the same as actually doing it."

"Janey said you were…. You were like Wonder Woman the way you faced down those guys that morning. She said you didn't hesitate, or even look scared. You just…."

"You want to know something, Barb," she said, eyeing a can of mixed vegetables.

"What's that?"

"I was terrified. Not for myself. I knew… Well, I figured I'd be okay. I just afraid I was going to let the others down. Professor Weems was shot before I could even react, and then I heard all that shooting from down the hall while I was protecting my class. I was terrified. I was afraid I was going to let more people die."

"But….you saved a lot of people, too."

"Yeah. One of the bad guy's family is still trying to sue me, though."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Say, you don't mind vegetarian food, do you?"

"No. Frankly, I try to avoid beef anyway. Too much fat, and cholesterol."

"No argument. But I'm betting that Robbie won't care much for 'chicks cooking' all the time after I serve up one of mom's vegetable lasagna's," she grinned.

"So, you can be evil," Barb chortled.

"Only with him. He's okay, most times, but the rest of the time…."

"Jerk?"

"Big jerk," she nodded.

"Sounds like my last boyfriend," Barb sighed as Adana went to work opening cans, and preparing the pasta.

"Ouch."

"Actually, my current boyfriend Doug isn't much better. He started out nice enough, but he didn't seem to understand that just because I'm blonde, it doesn't mean I'm a bimbo," she grumbled.

"Yeah, I get that."

"Same troubles, huh?"

"Actually….I've never dated."

"Never?"

"Well, I grew up….shy. Very, very shy. There were….other issues, but…..let's just say I don't foresee any relationships in my immediate future."

"But…. You're a hero. And smart. And pretty. And…. Well, you're practically royalty, too, since you're related to Princess Diana. Guys would probably be all over you if….."

Adana gave her a rueful expression.

"Okay, that came out wrong, but you know what I mean. I'm sure guys…. Nice guys….. Would love to go out with you if you…..gave them a chance."

Adana said nothing as he took the pans Barb had found by then, and began the sauce and vegetable mix she would use for filling.

"Adana?"

"There's….just a few….complications that make that unlikely."

"Ada?"

"Don't worry about it. We're here to help you. Remember," Adana told her.

"I know a lot of the girls don't like me. Too rich. Too connected. Too bitchy. They all think they know me, too. Or how I am in their minds. But…. I have some very nice friends. I can be nice, too. If you like, maybe I could get someone to double with Doug, and we could…."

"No," Adana said so fast she didn't even have time to finish her sentence.

"You're not even going to think about…..? Are you…..gay?"

Adana dropped her head, and slowly shook it.

"I don't honestly know," she told her after a very long pause. "Let's just say I'm different, not interested, and not likely to be interested?"

"Well, it's not like you're an alien," Barb pressed. "Even Princess Diana goes out on dates. I heard she even dated Superman once. That must have been….."

"Barb," she cut her off, and turned to look at her. "Can I trust you?"

Barb just stared at her.

"I mean it. Can I _really_ trust you?"

"You're helping save my life. You've already saved it at least once. Maybe twice. Of course you can trust me," she nearly babbled.

Adana sighed.

"I'm….different. Really different. Before my meta-gene manifested….."

"You were a shrimpy little girl no one noticed," Barb smiled.

"I was a shrimpy little _boy_ no one noticed," Adana told her.

Barb's lips moved for several moments before she managed a single sound.

"But….?"

"I changed. Obviously. But I'm still not…..well, normal. I'm a hermaphrodite. Male, and female, in one body."

"That's….."

"Awkward," Adana suggested.

Barb said nothing, just staring.

"You can see why I would want to keep that quiet," she went on.

"Mum's the word," she finally nodded at her, and it surprised Adana. "Have you told your friends yet?"

"You're the first one outside family, and the government to know."

"The government?"

"Well, I did have to register as an active meta," she reminded her. "Those freaks kept babbling about testing me in spite of my preferences to avoid them. They acted like all they really wanted was to take me apart, though. Those scientists haven't changed that much since the bad old days of Cadmus."

"Cadmus," Barb asked. "How do you know about them?"

"Well, mom, and grandmother were connected to the League back when Dr. Hamilton was waging war on them."

"But….nothing recent? I mean….no one is investigating them now, are they?"

"Now? Last I heard, they were shut down years ago," Adana told her.

"But, Ada, I heard dad talking to someone that said he was needed back at Cadmus the week he….disappeared." The blonde's eyes rounded, and stared at the brunette as she asked, "Do you think….?"

"It's a lead we need to check out. I'd better let Captain Atom know. This could be bigger than we realized."

"But dad's just a….a politician. Not a…..mad doctor," she protested.

"Half the politicos in D.C. were a part of Cadmus at the start. If they're restarting the old labs….. We have to find out. Before something bad happens."

"Maybe…. Maybe my dad found out, and they grabbed him because he was going to….tell someone. He wouldn't…. I mean, he couldn't….be part of that."

"We'll find out," Adana told her. "And we'll find him, no matter what is going on. I promise," she told her.

Barb just nodded.

**X**

"Where are you?"

"About a block from the safe house," Todd replied quietly as he made a show of studying the electronics in the pawn shop window. Which also gave him a good view of the street behind, and around him. "I ditched the van, and still managed to pick up a tail before I got through the park. Someone is definitely trying to trail us, Captain."

"Understood. I just heard from Ada. Incidentally, she's using _Meta,_ now."

"I know. So, what's up?"

"I want you to rendezvous with Gaia, and Spark. We just received information that might indicate Cadmus is trying to get back into the game. I need you three to investigate Daniel Wilson's home, and office. Thoroughly."

"Where do we meet up?"

The channel was quiet for a few seconds, and then the somber voice directed him three blocks over to a local coffee shop.

"Right. Are we engaging, or just eyes on this one?"

"Spark is your team leader, and will make the decision based on what you find. For now, we need confirmation on Cadmus' operative status one way, or the other. That is your priority."

"Along with finding Wilson?"

"If we're right, finding Cadmus will put you in touch with Wilson."

"Understood, Cap. And, looks like my buddies are back. I'm starting to think they have some kind of gene-tracker, or satellite eyes on us, because no way are these guys that good."

"Loose them, and meet up with the others. I'll investigate any local spy satellites."

"And if they're using gene-trackers?"

"We'll find out if the satellites aren't an issue," Captain Atom told him, and then closed the channel.

"Right. Because leaving the little guy with his shirt tails hanging is just standard procedure now. Right," he muttered, and noted the two men were now crossing the street just up the block.

He waited for them to mingle with the pedestrian traffic, and then ducked around the building, ran down the ally, and ran through the back of the pawn shop to wait near the public restroom. He gave them a few minutes to chase him up the alley, and then walked through the pawn shop, out the front door as the owner stared hard at him, and then headed down to meet his teammates.

So far, so good. The two weren't showing yet.

He ran up the street, ducked through the back alleys all the same, and entered the coffee shop through the back door. The cook glared at him, but he grinned, said, "I'm surprising some friends, guy. No big."

Walking out into the lobby, he paused to order a black coffee, and walked on over to the booth where Gaia sat beside Spark.

"You two make a cute couple," he smiled.

"I thought Robbie was the tactless one," Gordon drawled.

"I'm blending in. I've had two suits chasing me all over town. I'm pretty sure I ditched them before I dropped the girls, but they popped up twice since I ditched the van. Can't be coincidence."

"No," Gordon agreed. "Cap said you had new information for us?"

"He didn't tell you what?"

"Just said to meet you here, and you'd relay the word on our updated assignment."

"Meta phoned home."

"Meta?"

"Oh, I guess you didn't get that one. Ada is using Meta now. Anyway, Cap said there may be a connection between Wilson, and a resurgence of Cadmus. I kid you not."

"Cadmus," Gordon spat. "Even I remember when dad used to talk about those guys. They darn near blew up the planet themselves before they were shut down."

"Well, apparently, they might be back. We have to check out the Wilson house, and his offices, and see if we can find anything that….confirms anything."

"We checked out the house. Nothing there. Even the home computer was a blank. Nothing but the usual harmless emails, and social tweets."

Todd nodded at Gordon. If Spark said there was nothing on the computer, then there was nothing on it. "Maybe the office, then," he suggested.

"Definitely. We might want to go back through the house, though. Just in case. You might see something we overlooked. And knowing we are looking for something that was likely very well hidden might give us new ideas of how, and where to look."

"Did he have a basement?"

"Two story manor. No basement."

"Does that seem likely to you," Todd asked.

"Now that you mention it….."

"You know, having the butler guy give us a tour likely didn't help," Gaia pointed out. "He'd be sure to keep us away from anywhere this Wilson wanted to keep….secret."

"And a point for you," Todd nodded at her.

"Two points. Starched, and stuffy might be worried, too, but it could have been for other reasons than a missing employer, and his endangered kid," Gordon realized.

"Okay. Office first, and then we surprise Jeeves with a late night visit," Todd told them.

"So, Meta? What's up with that one. Kind of….generic, isn't it?"

"You know Ada," Todd told Gordon.

"True. I'm surprised she even bothered at all."

"I'm not touching that one. And….there's the twins again," he said, lifting his coffee that had arrived just then, and discretely gesturing to the window where two men were standing in shadow just out of sight.

Only one had peered out, and given himself away since Todd had been purposely keeping his eyes open for them just in case.

"Ember, Spark," Captain Atom's voice came over their comlinks they wore in their ears as active provisionals. "There is no satellite in the area. They are tracking you via some other means. I suggest you find out how, and neutralize it. We may need to know about it, at the least."

"Understood, Cap. Thanks for the heads up."

There was no reply.

"Paper, rock, scissors," Todd asked.

Gordon smirked.

"If they're using tech, I need to see it. I want to find out what it is, and how it works."

"I guessed either spy satellites, or gene-trackers. Only how would they have…."

"Meta-registration files," Gaia told them. "All our DNA is on file for anyone with the….clearance to view it."

"Good point," Todd nodded. "Second question. How did they know to track me, and why not just track Ada directly?"

"Because some DNA isn't on file," Gordon realized. "One of the provisions of Princess Diana supporting the meta-registration was that no Amazonian DNA was to be on file, or available for experimentation. Which means they wouldn't have Ada's to work with. Just a generic file of her status."

"Really?"

"Really," Gordon nodded at Gaia. "The Big Guy isn't on file, either. But he's technically not a meta anyway. But after all the mess some people made screwing with his DNA in the early days, he refuses to let anyone have so much as a hair now."

"I can't blame him," Gaia murmured. "I don't like the idea some hack with a test tube can just play with our genetics anyway. Talk about invasion of privacy."

"Yeah. Big time," Todd agreed. "Okay, so, we lure the suits out, and you get to take them out," he asked Gordon.

"You go ahead. If they follow, we follow. If they split up, we take out the one that stays behind, and follow. Less chance of losing whoever is holding whatever gizmo they have. Ready," he asked in the next breath.

"Ready," Todd nodded at Gordon.

"So am I," Gaia told them.

"If you act, use nonlethal methods," he told her. "We incapacitate only. No debilitating injury, or death."

"Fine. Fine," the girl sighed.

"I don't know. Right now I wouldn't mind scorching those nosy….."

"Todd!"

"Fine. Fine. So, no flaming enemas."

Gaia giggled at that one. Gordon only glared at his teammate as Todd climbed to his feet to pay for his coffee before leaving.

_To Be Continued….._


	8. Chapter 8

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**8**

Barb grinned at Robert's expression when he stared at the steaming plate set in front of him.

"Veggie crap? Are you serious? This is….."

"Yes," Adana asked.

"Chick food," he sputtered, still standing behind the chair that was set for his place.

"Did he really just say…?"

"He said it," Adana grinned, sitting down with Barb at the small, round table, and picking up a fork.

"Maybe Todd can bring a pizza back," he said. "I'll call…."

"I know you know the drill," she cut him off. "No unauthorized personal calls on duty in a safe house. And Todd was sent to join up with the rest of the team on something that came up."

"He was," he frowned. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I am telling you. Now. Sit down, eat, and I'll tell you all about it," Adana smiled.

"Jeez, and I thought Gordon was bossy."

"I'll tell him you said so."

"Just tell me you made something besides…..?"

He grimaced at the plate.

"Garlic bread?"

She slid the serving platter across the table, and he sighed, and scooped up half the bread there.

"Aren't you even going to try it," Barb asked. "It's actually pretty good," she informed him.

"One bite won't kill you," Adana told him with a grin.

"I'm not so sure," he muttered, stuffing half the first slice of warm, buttered and seasoned bread into his mouth.

"Try it. I dare you," Barb grinned.

He scowled at her, and looked back down at the plate.

"What will the world think if they knew Dreadnaught was afraid of vegetables," Barb asked blandly, giving Adana a wink.

The brunette couldn't help but snigger.

"Fine. One bite. But when I gag….."

He snatched up his fork, took a less than large bite, and began to slowly chew. Swallowing after a moment, he said nothing as he lifted another, larger bite to his mouth.

"Well," Barb asked.

"This isn't too bad," he admitted, and began to eat in earnest.

"Wow, I can't believe…."

"Don't let it go to your head," Robert cut Adana off. "It still would have been better with some meat in it."

Barb laughed.

"Then I guess you'll want to cook breakfast yourself tomorrow morning," Adana told him.

He continued to eat, eyeing her thoughtfully, and then drawled, "Nah. You girls obviously don't do too bad in the kitchen. Just like I said. Chicks cook. Men eat. It wouldn't be right to upset natural law."

"Here's another law for you," Adana told him smugly. "Chicks cook. Guys clean up."

He scowled, and glanced over at the sink already filled with soapy water that steamed above the mound of suds, and had a few handles from several pots sticking up.

"You don't mean….?"

"We cooked. You wash. Unless you'd rather get really hungry before we share again," Adana told him with a faint smirk.

"Now you're being evil," he complained.

Barb only laughed all the more.

"Fine. Fine. I'll wash the damn pots."

"You'll wash up everything."

"Okay," he muttered, and shoved his plate toward her.

His empty plate.

"Yes?"

"Could I have some more?"

Barb grinned as Adana chuckled.

"Sure."

"So, what did Cap say?"

"Actually, it's what we told him," Adana told him, rising to fill his plate again, and putting it in front of him. This time he started eating without hesitation.

"What's that," he asked around a full mouth, making both women roll their eyes.

"Barb remember that her dad once mentioned Cadmus. The implication is….they might still be active."

"Damn," he murmured, suddenly looking serious.

"You have heard of them?"

"Who hasn't. My uncle was one of their original 'Suicide Squad.' They sent him to die, and wrote him off when he got caught during a mission. The only reason he retired was so they couldn't come after him again. Without his armor, they didn't know who he was."

"Smart," Barb nodded.

"Well, he was a felon, too. It stood to reason he would want to hide his face, so he never took off his armor when around…..anyone else."

"I would say the smartest thing he did was retire," Adana murmured.

"Not even going to argue," she was told as Robert just eyed her now. "So, what else?"

"Cap sent Todd to join the guys, and check out some leads. He should have joined them by now, so, I guess, they're on track. Hopefully, they'll find something that will help us figure this one out before too long."

"Uh, did you guys hear something," Barb asked as they all froze at the same instant, and Adana turned toward the back door.

"Dreadnaught, armor up," she told Robert just before the door was kicked in.

**X**

"Definitely a genetic tracker," Todd was told when Gordon joined him down the block just ten minutes after he had led one of the men off. The other had stayed behind.

For all the good it did.

Gaia raised a fog, and they simply strolled right over, and knocked the man out, taking a small box he carried that matched the one Todd now held.

"Figured. I noticed it was really chirping when I got close to the guy."

"I have more bad news," Gordon told him.

"What?"

"They'll have Robbie's DNA in this, too. In fact, it has all the League junior provisionals coded."

"Mine," Gaia asked uneasily, this being the first Gordon had said of his findings since he had taken the small device that looked like a smart phone from the agent who was identified as NSA.

"No. You're too new, I guess. They wouldn't yet realize you're with us. Which might be a good thing. The point is…."

"They'll be able to find Robbie, and that means…."

"I called Cap. Hopefully, he warned them in time for them to bail."

"Yeah," Todd frowned. "Only it won't do any good as long as they can use these things to keep hunting….. Any of us," he realized, staring at the device.

"Not much longer," Gordon declared. "Trust me on that."

"Why not?"

"I sent a virus out into their wireless operating system once I figured out what this thing was doing. It's about to crash whatever mainframe is loading their DNA scans, and primary location foci. Meanwhile, we have to continue with our plan. We are obviously skirting something big, Ember. Captain Atom said we have to find that link. Now."

"Then let's go," he said, and pulled off his sweater, exposing the top of his usual costume.

"Right," Gordon agreed, and simply jerked off his own shirt.

"No way am I changing in the middle of a dirty alley," Gaia told them.

Wisely, neither of them commented.

**X**

"Armor up," Adana barely shouted even as two men spilled in the back door, aiming some kind of weapons at them.

Even as they did, three more burst in the front door of small duplex, the other side being rented as a blind. Barb screamed even as Robert jumped up, a violet haze surrounding him just before his clothes morphed into his usual golden armor, complete with helmet.

"Magic so rules," he shouted, and charged the three firing ineffectually from across the living room.

Adana put herself between Barb, and the other two, and charged them in the same instant, deflecting some kind of pronged barb that sparked with an electric charge even as the other tried to fire at the blonde.

Only he carried a very heavy magnum pistol that was obviously intended to be lethal.

Focusing on him, she rushed forward, grabbed the hand with the gun in it, and squeezed.

The man howled, pulled back, but had to release the gun which she crushed in one hand with surprising ease, and tossed it toward the first man now rushing past her to the blonde Barb with a knife in his other hand he had pulled from behind his back.

The mangled gun hit him in the back of the head, driving him forward, and nearly unconscious as he slid across the floor.

"Dreadnaught, we have to bail!"

"I've got these guys," he jeered, dropping the last conscious man.

"We have more coming. We have to go now!"

"Right behind you, Meta," he shouted, proving he had been listening as he scooped up Barb, winked, and told her, "Don't worry. We've got you."

"Follow me," she told him. "And don't stop for anything," she said.

"Meta, Dreadnaught," Captain Atom's voice came over their coms. "We just learned they had gene-trackers with Robbie's DNA in it. You have to….."

"Already moving, boss," Dreadnaught answered. "Got any clues about where to go where we won't draw the wrong crowd."

"Fallback position delta," he replied. "We'll transport you up from there."

"Understood," Robert replied as he surged forward. "Looks like I get to lead, doll-face. Not that view wasn't spectacular," he chortled as he passed Adana, and moved forward to take a turn to the right.

"I swear, one of these days….."

"Look out," Barb screamed as they turned the corner even as someone in a black suit stood there aiming a long tube at them.

Even as she screamed, the vapor trail of the mini-missile erupted as it slammed right into Adana's chest, drove her back into a storage shed near the house behind them, and exploded.

"Ada," Barb screamed as Dreadnaught skid to a stop, and stared at the burning rubble as four more suits converged on them.

Just as the burning rubble exploded in all directions as Ada leapt up, and out of the ruined storage shed, and actually seemed to hover in the sky for a second before she glared down at the men surrounding Robert, and Barb.

"I have had enough of your guys," she shouted, slamming into the ground just shy of one man, and grabbing him up to throw with impressive force into another.

Both men went down, and neither got up.

She turned to glower at the other two, and hissed, "This….is where you start running."

The men eyed one another, glanced back at the angry girl in scorched, ragged clothing over an untouched blue bodysuit, and bolted back the way they had come.

"Way to clean house, girl," Dreadnaught cheered her. "You might just have some chops after all. Now, let's blaze before they actually grow a pair."

She didn't argue as she looked to Barb, who was pale, and staring as she eyed her.

"There," Robert pointed. "We get in that storage shed, and we can teleport."

"Why couldn't we do that back there?"

"Blondie's got no beacon, Meta," she was called. "And we couldn't leave her behind."

"Oh. Right. You're right."

"Bet that hurt."

"Huh?"

"Saying I was right," he grinned, the smug expression evident across his entire lower jaw.

"You're still a jerk," she said as he tapped in a code once they reached the shed, and stepped inside the minute the door opened.

"On the pad," he pointed, and Adana frowned at him. "I know the drill."

A moment later, three more agents kicked in the door, and found nothing but an empty shed. Once deactivated, the teleport pad had resumed its programmed camouflage as a pile of boxes. The hard-light hologram made them very convincing.

**X**

"I don't know about this," Barb said as she stood before one of the most famous League members of all time. Even she didn't realize how tall he was in real life, though. Or how scary looking he was up close.

"Don't worry. J'onn won't hurt you. He just wants to see if you know things you might not realize. Things that might help us help you, and your dad."

"And find Cadmus."

"It's looking more and more like Cadmus may be the center of this investigation," Captain Atom told her as he walked up behind her. "J'onn?"

"I'm already….in," he murmured, and Barb tore her gaze from Adana, and stared at the Martian whose eyes were glowing a weird yellowish color that made them seem empty.

"Don't worry," Adana told her, putting a comforting hand on the blonde's shoulder.

**X**

"Idiots. You have likely tipped our hand, now, and alerted the entire League. I warned you about using the trackers so overtly. Or directly engaging the heroes. This was supposed to be a covert operation. You do know what that means," Dillon Connors demanded of the men who stood in his office.

"We were….found out. Those kids are sharper than we were led to believe. And the team at the safe house we tracked down was taken out so fast, and so hard they didn't even have time to report. These kids may be young, but they are….."

"Yes?"

"They're good, sir. Better than expected from what is in their files."

"All the more reason we need something, or someone to counter them. We've had League members, and so-called heroes go rogue before now. If these new members follow type, we'll have no way to stop them if they go bad."

"What of the rest of the League? Wouldn't they…..?"

"You honestly think they would turn on their own? Look at how they stood up for that Thanagarian even before the League became a world power in its own right. Look at how they stood up for that infernal Kryptonian time-after-time even when he showed us he could be just as corrupt, and malleable as anyone else. Frankly, it still worries me we haven't seen that cousin of his in all this time. Who knows what she's really up to out there?"

"I thought….she just retired," one of the men murmured.

"They'd like us to think that, wouldn't they? Well, the last time we thought someone retired, Parasite almost destroyed our entire governing body when he attacked a joint session of Congress! No, we have to be ready, and we have to have power that will not only neutralize these….heroes, but completely overwhelm them from the start," he all but spat.

One of the three men in the office glanced at his senior officer, and grimaced.

Neither said it, but they were all thinking it.

This guy was borderline.

"Just tell me you neutralized the civilian target?"

"They took her with them. We don't know if she was injured, or even hurt," the senior member of the trio reported. "And the team that hit the house is still in ICU. Out cold. We don't know what happened, except that the targets were…..able to escape."

"Wonderful. Just wonderful. You should be scrubbing toilets, you moron. Not leading operations. Get out of my sight. All of you."

The men left without argument. None of them even bothering to look back.

Dillon Connors walked back behind his desk, sat down, and pivoted the chair to look out the view behind him from the tall, steel and glass spire that was the local headquarters for the national BMR. The Bureau of Meta Regulation had formed to first help new metas with the difficulties associated with the often abrupt, and sometimes unnerving manifestation of their powers. With more metas being spawned almost daily in the past few years, the government was overwhelmed dealing with far too many that went rogue, and chose to follow the easier path to fame and fortune in crime.

The latest president to take power exploited the growing discontent within the rest of the nation to make registration mandatory, and government sponsorship all but a requirement to stay out of jail. Even alleged carriers that knew they had the gene, but had not manifested were required to register. Then the president realized that some of the new mutations had some very practical value.

To him, and his administration.

Especially since the League refused to bow to any one political organization. Not even those in their own apparent nation.

Dillon, however, had seen the writing on the wall.

Man was coming to an evolutionary crossroads. Much like the Neanderthal likely had thousands of years ago. Only this time, it was humanity that was facing extinction as more and more of the super-powered freaks cropped up, and began to sublimate ordinary, and more natural men and women. Where the President thought it was quite all right to encourage, and exploit the new metas, Dillon saw a threat that needed controlling, or even neutralizing.

The President might want his special teams to counter ever more powerful vigilantes and felons, but Dillon wanted the power to shut them all down.

Just in case.

After years of research, and years of covert, and very careful management, he was very close to that end now. The Winter girl was proving the key to his success, but she was also proving all but impossible to reach.

Even he had not realized that singular freak, related to that annoying Amazon who felt justified in foisting her ridiculous political views off on them, was in fact, the culmination of a genetic amalgamation that might just be the key to his own project's complete omnipotence at the time.

When _he_ first manifested, even Dillon Connors had only seen just another meta to tap, and potentially use.

He certainly never expected the boy to shift genders, and develop even more power than her mother. Or her equally annoying sister, he mused as he considered a certain agent in the NSA that was fast becoming infamous for results gained while operating outside the proverbial box.

Tala Winter was a hardnosed, hardcore agent that was known to openly defy orders at times, and yet still managed to close cases faster, and easier than most men with years more experience. It didn't take much to guess how, or why. Her own powers were equal to Amazon herself, even if they weren't in the Princess' range.

But Adana. That unlikely of all metas, kept evolving. Kept getting stronger.

And now she was obviously openly working with the League in spite of her earlier protestations.

He had to know what had happened in that safe house. Then he needed to get that girl in his labs. Her genetics, he was certain, were the key to the entire failsafe project he had crafted. It was time, he decided, to risk becoming proactive. It was the only way to proceed if they were to succeed before the League could meddle in human affairs again.

Then he had an idea.

"Rose," he buzzed his secretary, who had the sense to know she was a secretary, and nothing else. "Get me _Target,"_ he growled.

The woman gave a noise of affirmation, and shut off the intercom.

He did like a woman that knew her place. And very soon, those annoying Amazons, along with that freak they had spawned, would learn theirs. Along with every other meta freak on the planet.

_To Be Continued…_


	9. Chapter 9

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**9**

His professional name was Target.

They called him that because he always hit his mark. Always.

It didn't matter if it was assassination, theft, or simply reconnaissance. He always got the job done. Always.

The beauty of his rep, known only to the political hotshots that usually hired him, was that very few people in the world even knew he existed. Even the League, filled with busybodies at the best of times, didn't know he existed.

Which was how he favored it.

Splashy, public shows might play to the media ratings, or certain egos, but it didn't get the job done.

Target was all about the job.

He knew his place, after a fashion, and he was well paid for his services.

The pay, he felt, was all the justification he required whatever the job.

Why shouldn't he enjoy his job? He was good at it. He was, literally, made for the work he performed. He viewed himself as no different than a clerk selling goods, or a fireman fighting fires. He had a job, and he was paid to do it. That it was a job he enjoyed only added to the few perks allowed him.

Not that it mattered.

The pay was good, and in due time, he would retire in complete anonymity, and no one would ever see him again. Not even those few that even knew he existed.

When his latest assignment came in, he wanted to laugh.

Idiots.

Most of them were. Politicians, and puppet masters were always blind when it came to details. They wanted the splash, too, whatever else they claimed. They wanted people to see them, and know they were the one pulling strings. That they were the one with power that crushed otherwise meaningless lives.

They didn't see they were just another cog in a world that didn't care about any of them.

They didn't know their own place.

Little wonder they were never satisfied.

When the latest puppet-master to rise in the current bureaucracy sent him after specific DNA, it was with instructions about being discreet, letting no one see him. All the usual prevarications that meant nothing to him, since he never let anyone see him anyway. No one that lived, of course.

Target, after all, was very, very good at his job. Part of his value was in his anonymity, and he meant to keep it right up to the day he finally retired.

Which, considering the payday on this job, wasn't going to be long. After all, how long would it take to get a sample of DNA from a mere girl?

**X**

"You okay?"

Adana walked up behind Barb who was standing near a wide porthole, staring down at the planet below.

"Just still…..reeling. It's hard to believe I'm really up here. With all these….legends."

"They're just people, too. Under the costumes, there are a lot of very ordinary people who would love to live normal lives if they were able."

"But….what would stop them? Who would stop them? They could….do anything?"

"Except turn their backs if someone needed help," Adana told her quietly, only recently realizing that was what drove even her mother at times during those few episodes when she lapsed back into active duty. Usually after just having declared that the last time was it. She was done.

"Oh. So…. Is that how you feel?"

"I told you about….me. I know what it's like to be picked on. Abused. Singled out. And that was before I had any power. I hated it. And that was just ordinary….bullying. I can't imagine how it must feel to the ordinary people that have to tolerate some…..poser that finds himself amped up overnight, and decides to crush the world for the heck of it."

"Like….Cadmus?"

"Cadmus is….different. From what I heard of the old group, they just feared the League was too big, and too powerful for their own good. They were a lot of old men that felt the government, and only the government, should have all the power."

"Yeah. I guess….some people still feel that way. And, isn't the government supposed to be in control?"

"Ask the people on the street how they feel when the government turns a blind eye to natural, or manmade disasters while they bribe blatant enemies to do what they want. Ask them how they feel when their own Congress passes laws that tells them they have no more rights to their own property when some bigshot wants their land for their own plans. Then tell me the government always knows what's best. Politicians are just people. People with more power than most, but unfortunately, more greed than most, too. And they don't always care about the people they are supposed to help. A man with a gun, or a politician with the government behind him. Both can hurt you, Barb. They just don't want you to fight back to either, because if you stand up to one, you might decide to stand up to the other, too."

"Oh. That….kind of makes sense."

"Something grandmother always used to say. I kind of paraphrased, but….I'm not as eloquent as Princess Diana can be. Still, it's the same thought. Sometimes, men get wrapped up in their own power, and delusions, and they just forget that their dreams aren't everyone's dreams. Then, too, there are some that just don't care."

"I just can't imagine my dad being involved in anything like this. Did….? Did the Martian say anything yet? He never told me what, or if he found anything….in my head," she said with a shudder.

"First thing," Adana said, stepping closer, and putting a hand on her shoulder. "You can trust J'onn. He probably has more secrets than anyone else in the universe, but he doesn't gossip. Ever. So your secrets, whatever they are, are safe. Okay?"

"Thanks," the blonde smiled timidly.

"You're welcome. In the meantime, while he sifts your thoughts for clues, he's not going to be saying anything that might be used against you, or your father. He's not the type. So don't worry about that, either. J'onn really is one of the really good guys. You can trust him. Even if he is admittedly a bit creepy at times."

"Thank you for that commendation, Meta," that very Martian declared dryly as he walked up behind them just then, standing just behind Adana as Barb just stared at him. "However, you are needed below. Your friend will be safe enough here. I shall look after her myself."

"Thanks, J'onn. What's going on? Did the guys find….?"

"Feral is waiting on the bridge. He will brief you."

Knowing a dismissal when she heard one, she turned to head for the command deck before glancing back, and waving to Barb.

"Don't worry. We're not finished yet, Barb. We'll find your dad, and get you back where you belong before you know it."

"Indeed. This way, young lady. I shall show you to more comfortable quarters where you may rest, do you wish it."

"Uh, thanks," she said timidly as she followed the Martian.

Behind her, Adana took the lift to the bridge, and found Dreadnaught waiting on her, still in armor. Of course, she had since shed those ragged civilian clothes that were going to represent a sizeable hole in her wardrobe budget, and was now just wearing her bodysuit, and of course, her bracelets.

"Meta," the golden-armored hero waved. "There you are. Ready to get back to kicking butt?"

The detective who was said to be related to the first, best Batman turned to glower at him from behind his feline mask.

"You are not supposed to go around just kicking butt, young man. You need to learn to use your mind, as much as your fists."

"We know, sir," Adana stepped in to avoid an inevitable lecture. "J'onn said you had information for us?"

"Yes. He did not detect anything that might indicate Wilson's implicit guilt, or innocence in the girl's mind. He did, however, find several conversations she had unknowingly overheard that definitely indicates that Cadmus is once again a rising threat. You will rendezvous with your teammates, conclude your area search, and find us a link to locating this new Cadmus. As of now, all other duties are on the shelf. This includes your collegiate activities. This, Meta, is an Alpha alert status."

"Alpha," she echoed, staring at the grim feline detective. "You think it's that big?"

"J'onn is worried. If he's worried, we'd better all worry," he told her. "Think you can focus past your own desires, Meta, and be part of the team?"

"Yes, sir," she nodded without hesitation.

"Good. Then get ready to transport. And, Meta?"

"Sir," she turned back to him even as she stepped up on the teleport pad.

"You still need to work on pulling those punches. You put three more men in ICU today."

Dreadnaught grinned at her, his approval obvious even as the world shimmered, and turned white.

**X**

Pinky yawned as she woke, looked around, and frowned.

"Ada still isn't back," she asked, spotting Lena at the desk in the room where she had dozed off waiting to hear from their friend.

"No," Lena said, glancing toward the nearby clock herself. "And I'm really getting worried. She's never been gone so long."

"Well, this is looking like one of those serious things. Looks like someone really was after Barbie, too."

"Yeah. Weird. Who would have thought someone like her had anything to worry about," Carla yawned from atop her own bunk as she rolled over to look down at them. "Anyone hungry?"

"It is about time to eat," Pinky sighed. "Guess Ada isn't going to make it back today, either. What's it been? Three days now?"

"This is the third," Lena nodded. "I asked the dean, but he said we shouldn't bother him about _League_ business. That it was none of our business."

"Sounds like him. Dr. Sanders is a bit of a prude when you get down to it. I'll bet he misses corporal punishment," Pinky grumbled as she rolled to her feet, walked over to the mirror over the sink, and ran her hand through her tousled mane.

"You wanna borrow my comb," Carla asked, sitting up on the side of her bed, stretching before jumping down.

"Nah. I like the unkempt look," Pinky grinned. "Gives all those boys out there ideas."

"Because you need to give them those ideas," Lena huffed skeptically.

"She has a point. I think it's genetic with guys. I doubt their libidos even have an off switch from what I've seen."

"Funny, I can't seem to find _those_ guys," Pinky complained.

"The fact you run around with a girl strong enough to break bones like twigs probably puts them off," Lena suggested.

"Huh? But I never used Ada to…."

Lena blushed.

"You didn't," Pinky moaned.

"I might have suggested to Bobby Polanksi that if he touched me again, my friend might not _like_ hearing someone was molesting me."

"Man. No wonder no one would even dance with me at that last party," Pinky complained. "Why did you even….?"

"Polanski is a Neanderthal, Pink," Carla called her, running a comb through her hair after pushing her away from the mirror. "I hear he even notches his belt. Swear to God."

"Really," Pinky murmured, sounding interested.

"Girl, you really need to get some standards," Carla told her, knowing her tone by now.

"What? I have standards!"

"Yeah. And how's your grades? I thought you came over to study?"

"I did. I was. I thought Ada would be here. She can explain that economics stuff in words I understand. Dr. Weems isn't so good at that."

"Guess I lucked out. Professor Dalton is pretty easy-going."

"Never had him," Pinky murmured. "Wonder if I could transfer."

"You still have to study," Lena pointed out.

"She's right," Carla agreed. "And now, we have to eat. Let's go, and we'll all hit the books again when we come back. Wouldn't look right if Ada came back to find us all fluking out, now would it?"

"Yeah, my old man would ground me life," Pinky muttered. "Him, and his 'personal responsibility' lectures could put anyone to shame."

"You ain't heard Pops wail on my brothers," Carla laughed as they left the room.

None of them noted the shadow that moved across the windows, cracked to let a little cool air in on the unusually warm evening.

**X**

Pinky had barely set down with her friends when her cell phone chirped.

"Hey, maybe that's…..?"

She fumbled to jerk out her phone from the back pocket of her snug jeans, and eyed the number.

"False alarm, it's the old man," she groaned, and lifted the phone. "Sorry, but I have to take it. Last time I tried to ditch him, he cut my allowance."

"You still get an allowance," Carla grinned.

"Hush," she hissed, and thumbed the right button. "Hi, dad. How are you?"

Lena and Carla both grinned as Pinky seemed to cringe.

"Well, it was a tough test. I did get a C, though. Yes. Yes, sir! I, ah, am studying with friends. Well, we're eating now, but then we're going to study the rest of the evening. Yes, sir," she sighed. "The whole evening. Swear to God."

She cringed again, and shook her head.

"I'm not rolling my eyes," she lied vehemently. "What, do you have spy cams on me now, or something? I'm not," she protested, rolling her eyes again. "Fine. I will. I will," she huffed, and hung up without saying goodbye.

"That's your father?"

"I think he thinks he's my parole officer, or something. Jerk."

"You know, he could have your phone bugged," Carla suggested.

Pinky held up the smart phone, and grimaced.

"I never thought of that. Maybe I should trade it in? No, he'd complain about the unnecessary expense. Damn, it would be like him, too. Jerk."

"You could accidentally _wash_ it," Lena grinned.

"Say, that could work," Pinky grinned. "He's always saying how scatterbrained I am. Complains I'm my mom's very twin at times."

"So, your mom is…."

"History. Died in a car wreck."

"Bummer."

"Well, to be honest, she wasn't too bright. She tried to drive around a super villain by driving off a bridge."

"She was still your mom," Pinky was told by Lena.

Pinky nodded, knowing the younger girl had her own issues about being an orphan.

"Yeah, she was. She was fun, too. More like a sister I never had, too. Until, you know, she was gone."

"That must suck. So, she actually drove off a bridge?"

"No one knows why she did it, to be honest. But everyone agrees she saw the villain land in the middle of the bridge, and she just turned the car right toward the guardrail, and kept going. It was a long drop. She didn't stand a chance."

"Bummer," Lena murmured.

"Hey, we all go. I guess mom was must making sure no one forgot her by going out in style," Pinky grinned.

"Does nothing get you down," a brunette asked as she came over just then, sitting down without being asked.

"Nell," Carla nodded. "What's up," she asked one of Barb's usual companions who had been hanging around them of late.

"I just wondered if you had heard…. From anyone," she said, shrugging. "You know, since they left?"

"Not yet," Pinky told her. "Guess they're busy, or something."

"Yeah. I hope she's all right."

Carla eyed the girl, and grinned.

"She's with Ada. She'll be fine."

"Yeah. I still can't believe all I saw her do that day those jerks came in shooting up the poli-sci building. She was like….."

"I was there," Nellie Evans grimaced. "I still have nightmares about that guy pointing his gun at me."

"Hey," Lena told her. "Just remember, Ada was there, and stood between you. I don't think anyone is getting past her. Not the way she fights. So I'm sure your friend is fine. They're probably just making sure they find out who all is behind….whatever is going on."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're probably right," Nell murmured, staring blankly at her untouched tray.

"Hey, here's an idea. Wanna join our study session?"

"I'm a senior, you know that," she reminded Pinky.

"Well, duh, so you can help us figure out that economics stuff," the blonde grinned impenitently.

"Why not," Nell smiled wanly. "I really don't feel like being….by myself. If you don't mind?"

"Not at all. More the merrier. So, what is your GPA," Pinky asked.

"Ignore her. She's a moron," Carla told her. "I'm sure Barb is fine. Ada is pretty tough, so if she's with her, she's probably fine."

Nellie just nodded.

"That's good. That's….really good."

**X**

Target moved away from the campus, four different vials in a small holder that held hair and skin samples he had taken from the Amazon brat's clothes, and brush.

End of mission. No splashy showdown. No tipping off the wrong people.

"It's me. I have at least two viable samples on their way. Maybe more."

He resisted the urge to scowl for a moment at the tone on the other end as he drove carefully away from the campus, even smiling at one of the security guards that didn't even look twice his way.

They never did if you knew how to act.

"No," he said only after leaving the security guard behind. "I did not find them. I did raid her dorm room, which is full of leftover DNA if you geniuses had taken the time to realize you could scrape her clothes, and brush for all the genetic samples you needed."

He didn't say anything as the man replied to that one, and smirked knowingly.

"I'll drop it at the usual place. I expect my finder's fee to be as prompt. Remember, this is my last foray. No more. I'm done."

This time he did scowl.

"If you try that, sir, you'll be the one making tomorrow's headlines. After a tragic, and unforeseeable accident. Understood?" He smirked this time as he heard the immediately conciliatory tone.

"I thought you would feel that way. Goodbye, and forget we ever met. For your own good."

Driving on to the drop sight, he kept his phone in hand as he punched a speed dial, and waited for the answer. He knew it would take a moment. Or two. It would depend on her mood.

"Hi, dad! How are you," his daughter chirped far too brightly to be genuine.

"What did you do now," he demanded. "I got a call from your dean that suggested you were faliing your tests."

"Well, it was a tough test," she sputtered. "I did get a C, though."

"Are you sure you're studying enough," he demanded.

"Yes! Yes, sir," she immediately amended, knowing he hated that kind of informality at the best of times. "I, ah, am studying with friends."

"Now?"

"Well, we're eating now, but then we're going to study the rest of the evening."

"Really?"

"Yes, sir," she grumbled in obvious complaint. "The whole evening. Swear to God."

"Don't be profane," he snapped. "You're not a thug. And don't roll your eyes," he added, knowing her quite well after all this time.

"I'm not rolling my eyes," she blatantly lied, which told him she was, since she couldn't lie very well at all. She never could.

"I think you are," he told her, just to annoy her, knowing she hated that.

"What, do you have spy cams on me now, or something?"

"Let's say I know when you are rolling those eyes, girl," he quipped.

"I'm not," she protested far too energetically.

"Just remember, study, and pass this term, or you are headed for boot camp. That's a promise, girl. No arguments. So, study, or else."

"Fine. I will."

"I don't mean…."

"I will," she cut him off, and hung up.

"Rude as ever," he murmured, smiling faintly as she didn't even bother to say goodbye. As bad as her mother used to be.

He sobered at that.

Maybe. Maybe one day he would tell her what really happened. As she was, though, he didn't think she was ready to know the truth. He doubted she could manage it. She certainly couldn't manage the the truth that he, her father, was Target, an assassin so covert that less than a half dozen people in the entire world knew for certain he was real.

He preferred it that way. He rather doubted Darla was the kind to handle secrets.

_To Be Continued…_


	10. Chapter 10

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**10**

"Nothing," Gordon told them as they left the Wilson house for the second time.

That, after they had joined up at the Gen-Tech offices, and checked out Daniel Wilson's offices, and private lab.

"There is such a thing as being too clean," Robbie told them as Dreadnaught glowered at the butler who had let them into the 'storm shelter' made of the basement only with the greatest of reluctance.

If, that is, one turned a basement into an entire underground shelter that resembled a penthouse suite crammed with all the amenities. Little wonder the boss likely didn't want anyone knowing he was ready for a siege with all the provisions, and armaments down there.

Still, there wasn't anything that gave them any clues.

"Actually, I think there is something that tipped their hand," Gaia told him.

"What's that," Gordon, now in full Spark costume asked as the light blue costume crossed by golden bolts eyed her as Ada frowned back at the house.

"Well, even for a rich guy, that basement screamed doomsday scenario. It looked like Danny was getting ready to hole up for a very long time. Maybe he knew something bad was coming, and wanted to be ready. I'd bet he was about ready to go on 'vacation' just about the time he vapored," the girl told him.

"That actually makes a lot of sense," Ada told Gordon. "I was just thinking about those provisions. He had quite a lot stored down there. Even if he only took Barb with him, there was enough to last two people for ten years. Or up to five for half that long."

"Which meant he had to have trusted someone else with the knowledge. The wrong someone else," Ember realized.

"Exactly," Ada agreed. "Spark, did you get a contact list off his devices? Something that would suggest who Mr. Wilson had been talking to lately? Like, the week before he vanished?"

"Three names come up consistently," Gordon nodded. "His junior VP, a lab rat we met at Gen-Tech, and…."

"And?"

"Darla Steele. Meta, don't you know her?"

"Yeah, but…. Mr. Wilson was talking to _Pinky?"_

"We need to talk to her," Gordon said without answering. "If only to eliminate her before we head back to reexamine Gen-Tech's VP, and that scientist."

"We storm the college like some invading army, and the dean will be screaming at all of us. Let me arrange a meet. Somewhere that no one will look twice at us."

"Because the gene-trackers are just going to ignore the fact you ran off only to come back to see your best girl," Robbie asked snidely. "They'll guess something is up, and might go after her, next."

"We can't risk calling. They could have all manner of surveillance already in the area," Spark told her. "Like it, or not, this is now League business, and we have to see her. Let's go."

"Fine," Ada spat at him. "But don't get mad at me when Captain Stick-in-the-Mud yells at us because the dean complains."

"You actually call him that," Gaia gasped.

"That's the least she's called him," Robbie chortled. "They don't always get along."

Ada's expression was eloquent as they headed for the nondescript van they were using to get around to be low-key just now. At least, as low key as five colorfully clad young heroes could be driving around a small city.

**X**

Target stared at the phone when it rang, and it proved to be the same number he had just dialed a day before. A number that shouldn't be calling now. Just a few more minutes, and he would have retired this phone, and gotten one that couldn't be traced back to him again.

"Justify this call, or you will be regretting it," he growled as he chose to pick it up.

"League members, including the Winter girl, just showed up, and dragged another girl out of school. Find out why. It's worth two large to us."

"If it involves the League, make it ten," he said, not sure he even wanted to try to slip around one of their teams. Even the younger members had proven quite often that they were not to be underestimated. If Winter was involved, that meant _she_ would be watching, too. And Diana, old as she was, was no slouch. If anything, she was sharper than ever.

"Five. Ten if you bring us the Winter girl in a bag."

"You want bodies, and you're talking more than a few hundred thousand," he growled irritably now. "Especially if they are League bodies."

"She's not active….."

"Then you are behind the times. The girl is actively working with the Martian, and Captain Atom. Or didn't _your_ spies know that," he demanded.

"Fine. Ten. And any fresh meta samples, bodies, or otherwise, that you can manage. We want to know why they are visiting the girl there, though."

"What was her name?"

"I believe they call her Pinky. Wilson was contacting her for some reason. Now the League is visiting her. That's too much of a coincidence. Whatever else, we want her, or her silence, assured."

"Understood," Target said quietly, and hung up, before crushing the phone in his hand.

"Pinky," he murmured. "What the hell are you into now, girl," he asked as he turned to stare at a nearby photo on the mantle of his innocuous home.

Darla was involved with Wilson? That was the contact they never let him hear about before now? Now she was getting visits from League teams? Apparently, his daughter was up to more than he had realized. Suddenly, he was wondering if her partying had entirely other connotations to it that he had blithely overlooked, thinking he knew her.

Heading for his room, and the hidden space that held his 'working gear,' Target prepared to find out just what the hell his daughter had gotten mixed up in before it blew up in her face.

Whatever it was, he had the unnerving feeling that Darla Steele did not have half his sense, or caution when it came to dealing with dangerous scenarios. Which meant, he had little doubt, she was going to need help. A lot of help. Just to stay alive.

**X**

"What," Pinky complained as she looked up from her notebook. "I think I almost got this one figured…..out….."

She realized that while Lena had tapped her shoulder, she wasn't looking at her. She, like the other girls, were staring in the door where Ada stood in full costume. With four other costumed figures all looking at them.

"Pinky," Ada told her. "We need to talk."

"We do," the blonde quipped.

"Not here," Spark told her. "You need to come with us, if you don't mind. Don't worry, we'll see you're returned soon enough."

"Safe, and sound," Dreadnaught nodded somberly, not even smiling as the four girls in the room just gaped at them.

"Ada," Lena asked. "Is….Barb okay," she asked after glancing over at Nell, who just stared at her, pale, and astonished.

"She's fine. And in a very safe place. We just need to talk to Pinky now. It won't take long."

"Sure," Pinky recovered. "Let me just grab my….."

"Leave the phone," Spark told her. "It's loaded with extraneous GPS, and spyware systems," he told her with just a glance.

"Dad," she muttered. "I knew it. I freakin' knew it."

Flinging the phone so it bounced off the wall, and shattered, spilling battery, and several small chips from the back when it split, Pinky glared.

"Trust not the Man," she swore. "Even if it is your old man! Especially if it's your old man."

"Later," Ada told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We need to go before we attract attention."

"Right," Pinky drawled. "Because you're all so incognito just now?"

"We will be," Spark told her. "Let's go. Time is crucial at this point."

"Okay, seriously," Pinky said, frowning back at their friends as she was led out of the room. "What's going on, because the last time I saw you…."

"Not here. We may be monitored while on campus."

"Okay, paranoid much?"

"Someone is piggybacking the local security network, and spying on this dorm in particular," Spark told her. "That means someone already knows we're here, and that we came for you. We can't risk interrogating you here, when it might be tipping off…..the wrong ears."

Pinky turned pale.

"You're saying someone is spying on our dorm? Our rooms? If I find them….."

"We'll take care of it," Spark told her, leading her down the hall while everyone that spotted them just gaped, and stood back. "You just need to trust us, and stay quiet until it's safe to talk."

She looked back at Ada, and asked, "So, someone really was after Barb?"

"And if we're right, you might be next," Ada told her as they left the dorm.

"Me," she sputtered as they led her to a dark van with tinted windows that Dreadnaught started up after climbing behind the wheel. "Why?"

"Why don't you tell us," Ada asked as she shut the door after they were all inside. "Buckle up, it's going to be a quick ride, and we do need to talk."

"Okay," she muttered, pulling a seat belt in place around her as Ada sat beside her, Spark in the passenger seat just eyeing something on the console, and the other three getting into the back seat behind them.

"Stealth cloak active," Spark reported. "Let's chat, girl," he said, turning to eye her.

"So, what? You want a weather forecast, or do you need the cheat sheet for…."

"We know you were conferring with Daniel Wilson just before he vanished. We know he was preparing to go underground for….an extended period. We want to know why. What were you two talking about? Why would he come to you," Spark demanded.

Pinky stared at him, her chin rising, her full lips thinning.

"This is serious, Pinky," she told her friend. "Someone wasn't just after Barb. They were trying to _kill_ her. They tried twice after we left. They'll try again if we let them."

"She's safe?"

"She's on the Watchtower," Ada nodded.

"That's pretty safe," Pinky murmured.

"These people are using state-of-the-art genetic trackers. They had access to meta registration, and DNA profiles. And they deliberately targeted your father. Why," Spark asked.

"Chill, bossy," Pinky growled. "I'm talking to my friend."

"Pinky, this is serious. If you know anything…."

"Dan….. We met online. At first, he was kind of a mentor. I was considering advanced nano-morphing as a field, and he was involved with some of the best cutting-edged work according to Gen-Tech's propaganda pages."

Ada nodded as if not shocked by that news. "Go on."

"We started talking, and….. Well, Dan figured out I wasn't as dim as everyone thinks I am."

"I never did," Ada told her. "Unless it's something you don't care about. Like economics," she said with a faint smile.

"Bingo," Pinky smirked back. "Anyway, I started tossing out ideas to sound off him. Hypotheticals. Then he, I thought teasingly, asked if I was hacking their computers, because some of my ideas seemed to be what they were working on."

"What ideas," Ada asked after Spark glanced her way.

"Genetic amalgamation. Not just hybrids, but combining several genomes via a techno-organic fusion to improve the species. Something like that."

"Why would you even think about something like that," Robbie asked curtly.

"Well, think about it. You could fuse the regenerative abilities of a chameleon into a stronger, more endurable host, and improve man as a species. No more worrying if you did, or didn't have a meta-gene. Or a compatible organ if you needed a transplant. Or something similar," she told him. "If you could fuse special genomes, you could jumpstart an entirely new evolutionary branch that would help us finally start learning to be….well, better. Or that was the idea."

"I think someone else has other intentions."

"Cadmus," Ember said from behind them.

"Cadmus," Pinky frowned. "You're talking about those weirdos from the old days? Aren't they….?"

"They're back. And they're up to something big enough they want anyone that knows anything dead. I have the feeling once they figured out you knew anything, they would have come for you next. Just tell me, did you and Mr. Wilson talk about anything else in those last few days?"

"That last time we talked was over a month ago," she admitted.

"About what?"

"He was complaining about _Barbie._ You know how it is. Daughter's a disappointment. That kind of thing. Still, he was talking about taking a….vacation. Wondering how to convince her to….come along," she said, her eyes only then showing any realization.

"Yeah," Ada nodded. "He knew then. You sure he didn't try to tip you off?"

"He did suggest…..I try a more unorthodox vacation break myself. He even suggested a few islands he thought I'd like."

"Which islands," Robbie asked, glancing over his shoulder.

"His suggestions might have a point," Spark agreed. "Where did he suggest?"

Pinky rattled off several islands, some known vacation spots, some not. Nothing about them really stood out.

"I don't get the connections," Robbie frowned. "I thought for sure he might have been trying to pass on something. A secret code. A message…."

"Coordinates," Ada told them. "He was using coordinates in polynomial fashion."

"What," Gaia frowned.

"Think about it," she told Spark. "Take the first locations, all in the northern hemisphere, horizontally located from town."

"Latitudes."

"The others, all southern islands, all vertically located away from the nations."

"Longitude. But which….."

"If one is latitude, and the other longitude, then he wouldn't be obvious. Invert the locations, and put them together to form single coordinate, and you end up with…."

"Looks like we're going to Canada," Ada nodded at Spark.

"More specifically, northwest Saskatchewan."

"And I didn't bring a coat. Or are you dropping me somewhere….?"

"We don't have time to delay. I think you'd better stay with us. You'll stay in the van, of course," Robbie told her, not even glancing back now. "Everyone hold on for vertical takeoff."

"Vertical? In a van," Pinky sputtered.

"All-terrain mobile vehicle. And when I say all-terrain," Robbie grinned, pulling back on the wheel that suddenly jerked back from the dash as something clanged outside the body, and began to vibrate alarmingly.

"I hate to fly," Pinky shrieked as the van converted, air spoilers sliding out from under its frame before it blasted into the sky on small, but powerful rocket boosters.

"Don't worry, you're perfectly safe," Ada assured her.

Pinky, looking almost as pale as the clouds around them, didn't look convinced as she saw the city fall below and away from them at alarming speed.

**X**

Target, his own more subtle costume under his civilian clothes, walked into the girl's dorm without hesitation as he pulled out his identification.

"I'm here to see my daughter," he told the security guard on duty.

"She's not here," the man drawled, not even looking away from the small TV on his desk where he was watching an old movie.

"Then where is she," Damien Steele demanded to know as he eyed the indolent man that could use some exercise in spite of his apparent build.

"Who knows. Kid is always running in and out. I'm not her….."

Damien's hand had come down on the back of the chair, and spun the burly man around, away from his desk.

"You, sir, are required to keep an eye on these young ladies, and ensure you knowwhere they are. You are to ensure that they aren't in any trouble. Now, if she is gone, she had to have signed out. You will tell me where, and when, and why, or I will be discussing your future employment options with your superiors very, very shortly," the big man said in a cold, implacable tone. "Understood?"

"Fine, fine. Jeez. All you had to do was ask. See," he gestured at the signout sheet. "She left….thirty minutes ago. Signed out with a bunch of fairies in drag. Guess she was off to some new party. That one likes to…..party….."

"Be aware you are discussing my daughter. Describe these….fairies?"

"Goofy looking kids. One of them was another student. That Amazon girl. Real nutcase that one, you ask me. Some fruit in yellow metal, and….."

"Never mind. You are describing _Justice League_ members. Not fairies. You do know that."

"They all look like fairies to me," the security guard snorted. "Who the heck dresses in their underwear to go outside? I ask you that?"

"Indeed."

He shot another look at the sign-out sheet, noted Darla's distinctive drawl, and read her name, time, and reason. 'Confab,' she had written.

He said nothing as he turned, and walked out of the dorm.

Ten minutes later, he was back in a nondescript sedan that wasn't his usual car, and heading away from the college.

He waited until he was off campus, and away from surveillance from either side, and then used his new phone to dial a number.

"It's me. I need all surveillance you have on the two subjects forwarded to this number now."

He hung up without waiting for a reply.

"Amateurs," he had muttered. He hated dealing with amateurs.

What concerned him, though, was how his daughter, usually a willful, and indolent creature, had gotten involved in an active League operation that crossed paths with his employer. Something was off here. He just wasn't sure what, or why.

He did know that he hated uncertainties. In his work, it was a sure path to failure, or worse.

He had to find out what was going on, and fast.

Even if he had to take the answers from his employer's own brain.

**X**

"We're really going to Canada," Pinky asked, watching the landscape curve, and speed past them far below the unlikely vehicle.

She wasn't as sickly as she had appeared at the start, but she was still looking less than happy to be with them.

"For now, you're safest with us," Ada assured her. "Once we're sure we can shut these people down, everything will get back to normal soon enough."

"Define normal," Pinky grimaced.

"Girl has a point," Gaia chortled.

Ember said nothing as Robbie laughed, too, and Spark turned to eye Ada, and remarked, "According to the GPS markers, there is supposed to be nothing up here. As in virgin timber, and nothing else. You're bordering the Northwest Territories, and we're talking barrens, mountains, and not much else."

"Perfect place to hide something you don't want anyone else seeing," Ada nodded. "Especially since everyone has been looking for a resurgence of something like Cadmus after that last fiasco according to the records I studied."

"So, you do study," Dreadnaught quipped.

"And you don't," Spark chided him. "Ironically, Captain Atom was one of those that suggested we keep our eyes open from the beginning. He wasn't happy about the way Cadmus turned on the League, and almost destroyed the world itself before they were done."

"Well, to be honest, a lot of that was the Luthor/Brainiac combo," Ada recalled. "Although, they didn't help. They certainly didn't bother to realize how easily they had been exploited, and manipulated."

"Granted. But if they are anything like they were, and if they are working on….nano-fusion," he added, glancing back at Pinky, "Then we have to find out, and shut them down. Fast, and hard. The last thing we need is another Doomsday scenario biting us in the backside."

"Or anywhere else," Pinky muttered.

"You seem to be taking this pretty calmly considering," Gaia remarked from behind Pinky. "Aside from your acrophobia."

"Hey, I'm not afraid of spiders," Pinky shot over her shoulder.

Ada rolled her eyes.

"She means heights, Pinky. Fear of heights."

"I'm not scared of heights, either," she grumbled, glaring back at her friend. "Just….weird cars that shouldn't have jets shoved up their tailpipes," she muttered.

Ember laughed at that one.

"Took me a while to get used to the new ATVs we use, too," he admitted.

"Yeah? How long," she demanded.

"I'll let you know."

Pinky glanced back at him, and snorted.

"We're coming up on the coordinates. The Watchtower can't get a lock on the site. It's definitely got some kind of shielding that interferes with any direct observation from the usual means. Which means this is a hostile site. Dreadnaught, put it down outside the perimeter, and we'll move in on foot to investigate. Agreed," Spark asked the team.

"Uh, I think someone has other ideas," Pinky pointed out the front windshield.

"Incoming," Robbie shouted, and twisted away from the vapor trails behind the small, silver darts coming their way.

"There's nothing on radar, or scans," Spark exclaimed.

"Blanks? They actually have blanks," Ember asked. "Let me out," he growled, and released his seatbelt to stand up.

"Everyone tighten your harnesses. I'm opening the hatch," Spark shouted as Robbie turned sharply again, making both Gaia and Pinky wail in protest.

"This doesn't bother you," Pinky shouted over the sudden rush of wind as the side door slid open, and Ember seemed to be sucked out like a cartoon character into the air beyond.

"You've never experienced my grandmother's flying," Adana told her grimly as her eyes remained locked on the smaller figure of Ember who now shot up on a trail of flame he was using to lift, and propel himself.

Two of the five locked on his heat signature," Spark reported, the hatch still open.

"Can't you close that door," Pinky asked uneasily.

"No," Spark shouted back over the roar of wind. "We may still have to bail, too!"

"But I can't fly," she protested.

"Neither can I," Robbie told her.

"You?"

Ada looked at Pinky.

"I….don't know."

"I fly," Gaia told her.

"So do I," Spark told her. "After a fashion."

"After a fashion? After a fashion," she shrieked, what does that….?"

The air buckled before them as two explosions shook the small vehicle as the missiles still tracking Ember suddenly exploded.

"Ember," Robbie shouted, then banked, and they all saw him streaking back around to intercept another of the three missiles still trailing their crazed flight.

"He likes to show off," Gaia huffed, and jerked off her own belt. "I'd better go help. Or we're still going to end up….."

"Too late," Robbie shouted, all but tearing his belt away, and shoving his door open with enough force to warp the panel. "Everyone bail, now!"

Ada jumped even as she snapped her belt, and Pinky's simultaneously. Spark and Gaia were already outside, and Pinky was screaming in her ear as she saw Robbie, his golden armor glittering in the sun, dropping like a stone.

Overhead, the small van flew on less than a few yards before two of the remaining three missiles turned, slammed into the undercarriage, and the resulting explosions rained debris down over them.

"You…. We aren't….. Falling," Pinky rasped, clinging so tightly to Ada it seemed she had to choking her just then.

"Guess….I can fly," she said grimly as Gaia used her power over the air to blow the falling debris aside.

"What about Dreadnaught," Pinky asked, looking down.

"Trust me," Spark shot past, his entire body seemingly composed of sparking and crackling electrons. "In that armor, nothing short of a nuke will even scratch him."

Ada didn't miss the fact he looked right at her as he spoke in that weird, buzzing tone he had in his electrical form.

"Everyone down, and let's hope they think they blew us away. Gaia, cover us if necessary with that fog trick of yours. Let's go."

"Right," Gaia saluted, and began to descend as the last missile locked on a larger piece of debris thanks to Ember's assist of superheating the falling shard, and exploded well away from them. Ember flew close to them, dropping with them, and just started at Ada.

"Didn't know you could fly, Meta."

"Neither did I," she admitted. "But when I jumped, it just….felt natural."

"Gotta love raw talent," Ember grinned, and dropped down to join Robbie, still clambering out of the crater he had carved out the forest below when he had impacted.

"You're kidding me," the man in mystic armor protested as he spotted the brunette dropping down with Pinky in her arms, bracketed by Spark and Gaia. "She flies now? What _can't_ you do, Wonder-Babe?"

"I'm not knocking you into orbit yet," she growled. "Keep on with that kind of talk, though…."

"Stow it," Gordon snapped. "This isn't training, people. We're in a hostile field, and we're obviously onto something. Gordon, watch our backs. Ember, Gaia, move ahead, and see if you can recon the area ahead. I believe we're still about three miles from the actual coordinates."

"What about me," Ada asked when Gordon just looked around.

"Find shelter, and keep the civilian safe."

Meta just stared at him.

"And, you?"

"I'm going to try to find an electrical feed, and sneak in to tap their systems. Maybe while they are focused on the intruder they just blew out of the sky, we can get in, do our jobs, and get out. Right now, that girl is our responsibility, too, Meta. So keep her alive while we finish this job."

Ada looked stubborn for a moment, and then nodded.

"You're right. I'll see if I can find water, too. If we're out here long, we'll need it."

"Don't bother. Anything in the immediate environment is likely going to be tainted by whatever they're doing inside that place," Gaia told her. "I can feel…..something around us. The entire area is….toxic."

"You can sense that," Spark turned to study the younger teen. "Is it airborne, or…?"

"Mostly in the earth, and the water. But part of it is in the air. Nothing serious, but…. I wouldn't trust the water. Or anything growing."

"Noted," he nodded at her. "Okay, you know what we have to do. Gaia, how far back does Meta need to get to escape the area's toxicity?"

"At least another two miles," she said after a moment.

"All right. Meta, pull back, and locate shelter outside the danger zone. If we're not back in…..three hours, call Captain Atom, and report our progress."

"But….?"

"Your primary duty is keeping your friend safe. She's a civilian."

"She's dead meat, hero," another voice growled as three men stepped around a stand of trees, and opened fire on them with automatic rifles.

Ada stepped forward at once, bracelets flashing like lightning even as Ember and Gaia superheated the air around them. Bullets just bounced off Dreadnaught's armor even as they simply passed through Spark who changed to his electric form.

An instant later, they all gaped as several bursts of gunfire hit Pinky dead center in her chest, and shredded her clothing. Before bouncing back after hitting a critical point where her strangely pliant skin yield, and then popped back out, sending the high velocity rounds back at their owner, bouncing off his own body armor.

"Take them out," Spark shouted, and as a group, they slammed into the three, and quickly overpowered them.

"I guess you guys are curious about me," Pinky sighed as they all turned to face her, untouched aside from her shredded clothing.

"Goes without saying, _Plasti-Girl_," Robbie grinned as he labeled her impulsively.

_To Be Continued…_


	11. Chapter 11

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**11**

"Plasti-Girl," Pinky sputtered. "Please. Do I look like I am some weirdo in tights?"

"Well, what do you call yourself," Robbie sniggered as Spark and Ember finished disarming, and tying the unconscious men up before they turned to the blonde.

Spark handed one of the men's armored tunics to Pinky as he approached her.

"I noticed you still cringed when the rounds hit you. I'm assuming you do still get hurt?"

"Duh. I'm not really bulletproof," she huffed. "I can just….alter my density in limited areas enough to manage a minor shift that allows me absorb any major blows."

"Like force impacting a trampoline," Gaia suggested.

"Something like that. And no jokes from the mentally impaired," she pointed at Dreadnaught.

"Yep, she's got your number," Ada smirked at him.

"But, you're not a meta?"

Pinky looked back at Spark. "No, I'm not. I'm….. I'm the reason my mom is dead."

"What," Ada asked.

"Dad…. He doesn't know, but….. The day she died, I was there. I….. I got her killed."

"Whoa. This sounds heavy," Gaia murmured. "Is this the time…."

"I think you need to know what happened, because….. I'm pretty sure the guys that killed mom are in there. The same guys that grabbed Dan, and are now after Barb," Pinky declared authoritatively now.

"You're smarter than you let on," Ada nodded. "So, what happened, Pinky? What is going on?"

"Genetic fusion. Just like I said. The day mom died, I sneaked into her car, wanting to see what the big deal about her new job was since she wouldn't even tell dad about it. He didn't like it, of course. I have said he's a major control freak? Well, even back then, he was bad. He didn't like her working in a job that required so much….secrecy. I was young enough, and stupid enough, that I decided to hide in her car, and find out what was going on."

"Kids," Robbie smirked.

No one smiled.

"I had this notion that I could surprise my dad, and he'd….I don't know….like me more for watching out for mom. That, of course, was the only smart part of my plan. The rest went to hell fast."

"Go on," Spark nodded, looking around,, and noting no one else was in the area. He had the men's radio frequencies now from their silenced radios, and no one was even looking in this area, thinking the team still out on patrol, looking for potential survivors. They had, apparently, not had time to call in their discovery.

"Mom got to work, and the first think I heard when I crept out, and followed her, was a big argument. Even while I was playing spy, mom had a big showdown with some hotshot in a suit. He was coming in, and taking all their research. Something about a big project for the 'good of all mankind,' as he put it. I remember that's the way he said it."

"Sounds familiar," Spark murmured.

"Doesn't it," Ada said quietly.

"Anyway, the guy was putting stuff into a briefcase, an didn't notice one of the vials had fallen, and rolled across the carpet. It landed right near the draperies where I was hiding. I used my foot to nudged it out of sight, and waited. The minute they left, mom still yelling, I grabbed that vial, and ran for the car. I figured it was some kind of serious evidence, and mom might need it, since I heard the guy say she was terminated."

"You mean fired."

"No, he said terminated. I thought he meant fired, too. Then. But mom was heading for the car even as I climbed in, and she was scared. I heard her try to call dad as she tore out of that place, not even stopping to check out at the gate. I heard shots behind us hit the car, too. I thought, whoa, that can't be real. Only it was."

"So, the story about your mom's death."

"Oh, a super villain nailed her all right. Only it was one I know those suits sent. Which meant…."

"How long ago was this," Spark asked.

"Five years. I was just fifteen."

"And when your mom's car went over…..?"

"She saw the guy slam into the bridge. She knew she didn't have a chance. She thought she could spare the other people if she just…. Well, she didn't know I was in the car. Not even then. I was so scared, I was still hiding. Until she hit the brakes. I looked up, saw the weird guy in the rainbow suit standing in the middle of bridge looking right at her, and I knew we were dead."

"So, she tried driving over the side to escape," Ada murmured.

"Almost worked, too. We hit the water hard, but mom was already dead. That guy…threw something. Hit her right in the back of the head. Funny how no one noticed that when they dragged her out of the water."

"And, you," Spark asked.

"Imagine hitting the water, slamming into the back of the seat in front of you, and having all your bones broken at once."

"Damn," Robbie murmured.

"Imagine, too, having a vial full of mystery…stuff in your jacket pocket, right in front of you chest, and it breaking at the same time, and splashing you with…..something."

"It overrode your genetics," Ada realized. "Reacted to the trauma of the impact, and gave you the ability to…..bounce back from the injury. Literally."

"Something like that. But before I realized any of that, the world turned red, then white, and I screamed a lot. And almost drowned.

Only I was also lighter than I was before, too. Don't know why. I floated up, and off in the current while mom's car sank, taking her to the bottom. By the time dad got the bad news about his 'crazy' wife, I had staggered home, barricaded myself in my room playing sick, no great effort just then, and slowly figured out what happened to me."

"Suddenly, your correspondence with Wilson takes on new meaning."

Pinky eyed Spark.

"I was looking for a cure, okay. You think I like being like this," she said. "I'm not even sure if I'm entirely human any longer."

"What," Ada frowned. "Of course you are….!"

"No, I look human, Ada," she said sadly. "Because I learned to remold myself. Afterward. If I relax long enough, this is what I look like now," she said, and her entire body shivered, shrank, and became a four foot humanoid latex silhouette. She no longer even had a true face. Just narrow slits for eyes, and a mouth.

"Pinky," Ada murmured as she stared at the unnaturally thin shape that now stood before them. A shape that was completely pink, head-to-toe.

"Like I said," Robbie murmured as Pinky willed herself back into human form.

"One more crack with you, and I'll see if that armor lets you survive suffocation," Pinky muttered.

"Actually," Spark told her. "He may be onto something. Near the end of his life, Plastic Man began to…..degrade, for lack of a better word. He went to many specialists, trying to find a cure. Something that would save him, or at least spare him an ugly death. No one ever saw him again. It is possible that someone…."

"Took samples of his unique bio-chemical makeup, and used them for whatever was in that vial," Pinky nodded. "I guessed as much. During my long march of self-discovery, I found mom's old notes. I hid, them, too, so the guys that showed up babbling about national security couldn't find them. It's where I first learned about genetic fusion, and the up-side of it."

"These guys, however, are obviously looking for the down-side," Ember murmured.

"Stands to reason. I say we go got bust them up. Pinky included. Now."

They all looked to Robbie.

"She's still….."

"Civilian? Spark, she's part of it. Has been before we were here. She has a right for some payback. I say, if we were sent to do a job. Well, let's go do it. All of us."

Spark looked around the group, and while Ada was frowning, she wasn't shaking her head.

"Meta?"

"I never wanted to be a hero, you guys know that. But if you ask me, this is Pinky's call. She's been in this from the start, just like Dreadnaught said. If she wants in, I don't think we have the right to stop her. Or make her go. It's her call."

Pinky stared at her.

"I would like to finish this. And maybe….find out who the guy was that killed my mom, and ruined my life," she said quietly. "But I'm not like you guys. Not really."

"You think we knew what to do the first time we manifested," Spark asked. "I scared myself to death, and almost got lost inside my own laptop."

"I burned my house down," Ember blushed.

"I almost killed _sixty_ people. All of whom deserved it," Gaia told her.

"I, uh, knocked down a skyscraper. I sneezed, and leaned into it," Dreadnaught sighed. "Who knew?"

They all looked at Ada.

"I went home, and…..hid under my bed. For three days. Took my grandmother to drag me out. Literally."

"That's it? That's all," Ember asked.

"It wasn't…. Well, there were….other issues. Look, it's personal. Okay. Enough said. Are we doing this, or what," Ada demanded.

"Or what," Dreadnaught nodded.

"If there's a chance….. Just a chance to find out why, even I can't get a cure, I'm in," Pinky told them.

"One thing, Pinky," Ada turned to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Never, ever think you aren't still human. Whatever else, it's the heart and mind inside that determines that. Not the shape of your flesh. I learned that one, if nothing else."

"Thanks, girlfriend," she smiled.

"If we're done with the hearts and flowers," Dreadnaught complained. "Let's get to the sticks and stones. 'Cause I want to break some bones!"

"Me, too," Pinky grinned.

"My kind of girl," Robbie cheered.

"Here we go," Ember murmured.

"So, you can….shape-shift, too," Gordon asked thoughtfully.

Pinky blushed.

"Yeah. It's a good way to slip out of detention," she grinned.

"Suddenly, some of your getaways this year make more sense," Ada realized.

"Sssshhhhh," she winked.

"Okay. Pinky, can you look like one of those guys?"

"What?"

"Here's my plan. We let Pinky, in disguise, march one of us right up to the door. I'm thinking Ember. They had to have seen him in action, if nothing else. Pinky says _he_ found him hunting his teammates, and claims his people are still looking for us. Meanwhile, Dreadnaught and Gaia flank, and cover as planned while I still creep in on their electronics."

"And, me," Ada asked again.

"You hold back. You're our secret weapons, Meta. Right now, no one knows how really strong you are, or the fact you can apparently fly, too. With luck, we sneak in while they're distracted, get the data we need, and break out. If things go south, I'll send you a call, and you break in, and do your thing."

"Which is…..?"

They all eyed Dreadnaught.

"What he said," Ada asked Gordon. "I mean, what do you expect me to do?"

"Lose your temper," Gordon told her.

"You want me to….lose my temper?"

"Exactly. Just imagine that entire installation is filled with Dreadnaughts. And they _all…..groped_ you."

"C'mon, Sparky," Robbie moaned, not liking the way Ada's eyes glittered just then.

"Good plan," Pinky agreed. "Ada is touchier than a virgin nun in a porno convention."

"Pinky," she sputtered, blushing redder than Ember's costume.

"What? It's the truth, girl, and you know it."

"All right. Everyone get ready. Pinky, pick a guard, and get ready to play tough. Ember, get ready to fake capture. We're on," he said, and turned to nod at Gaia and Dreadnaught. "Go," he told them.

"What if they jam the communications," Ada asked Spark before he could take off even as Pinky started transforming with some effort.

"They can't jam me," Spark told her. "If I call, you'll hear. If I do, come fast."

Ada nodded.

"I'll be needing this," a much gruffer voice came from Pinky's new visage as 'he' lifted a weapon from the pile near the unconscious men. "Okay, brat," Pinky drawled, shoving Ember forward. "Move that skinny butt."

"You are taking way too much pleasure in this," the teen grumbled as he staggered forward, not expecting the shove.

"Just making it look good, hot stuff," the unlikely visage winked, and smirked at him.

"Seriously," Todd moaned. "Don't do that!"

Spark allowed a faint grin, and turned back to Ada as the pair took off, Gaia and Dreadnaught already having taken off.

"With luck, I won't have to call. Be ready, though. You never know how these things will go."

"Mom always said the same thing," she nodded. "Seriously, be careful. You don't know what they might have ready. Even for someone like you."

"I'm not the one you need to worry about, nodding after Ember and Pinky.

"Yeah. In six months, I never once guessed….."

"We all have our secrets, Meta. Lay low. You don't want someone spotting you before we make our play."

"Right," she nodded, but paused to destroy the remaining arms in that pile before taking off after Spark disappeared.

Just in case.

**X**

"Target destroyed. Multiple impacts," the man at the radar station reported.

"Any survivors?"

"No contact on radar," he reported.

"Witnesses described a burst of flame escaping the vehicle before impact," another man reported. "Might have been a meta."

"Send out patrols. He couldn't have gotten far. Especially if he's saddled with wounded teammates."

"How do you know they might be wounded? Surely…..?"

The officer standing over the station scowled.

"If they came in a vehicle, then they couldn't all fly. If they didn't get out, someone got hurt. Even one flier couldn't carry an entire team. There had to be four to five members on board, since that's the standard League model. Now, we might four to five corpses, but we might have four to five very angry heroes about to break in our doors. Shouldn't we find out _before_ they get here," the man demanded of the radar tech.

"Yes, sir," he grimaced.

"Thank you for agreeing, peon. Get those patrols out. Arm them for anything," he added as the station chief nodded before relaying the orders.

The tech was left monitoring the radar around the site for over thirty minutes, but didn't spot any new marks.

"First three patrols report nothing. We have six others yet to report. Still searching," the security chief reported.

The officer studied a digital map.

"They flew in from the southeast. Impact was here," he tapped the screen. "Obviously, they weren't north, or west of us. Focus patrols in these regions," he indicated.

"Already moving in that direction, sir," the chief nodded. "We just cleared the north and west quadrants to be sure."

"Good. I like a man that knows to be thorough," he nodded at the chief.

The junior officer simply nodded, and went back to monitoring his own teams on the radio with the communications tech on station.

"Team five reported no contact as far as the river gulf. Turning south to join with team six. Four is turning back. Nothing to report."

"The others," the chief asked the tech.

"Team two reports nothing, but they're going to move a little farther out just to be certain."

"Where is team one, or three?"

The tech turned back to call in reports.

Listening, he turned to him, and said, "Team one just reached their checkpoint. Team two still hasn't called in."

"Where," the chief demanded.

The tech pointed out the section the team was assigned.

"Order all teams to converge. Now."

"Sir, we've got one member of Team Two at the door. He has a live captive. The rest of his squad is still searching for survivors," a man came into the control center to report.

"A live capture," the senior officer murmured. "Why didn't he report?"

"Damaged radio, sir. The kid put a fight."

"Kid?'

"Boy. Maybe seventeen. Skinny runt in red. Baker is taking him to holding now."

"Take him to the lab. Full containment," the security chief countered. "Take no chances. Meanwhile, all teams will converge on Two's last known locations."

"Team Four reporting, sir. They just found Team Two bound, and unconscious near the edge of the forest."

"What," the senior office frowned. "Confirm that. How many of them were found?"

"All three, sir," the tech relayed.

The security chief didn't hesitate.

"Shutdown," he ordered, slamming a palm over the console. "Full iso-protocols. We have an intruder," he shouted as alarms went off all around them.

**X**

Ada didn't need a signal. Just a mile away, hiding in the top of a very tall tree, her hearing easily picked up on the klaxons going off inside that giant, metal dome that sat squarely in the middle of a forested plain where nothing was supposed to be.

Military trucks and aircraft were all around it, mostly camouflaged, but more than a few jets, and anti-aircraft batteries were ready to go.

They were taking no chances.

How, though, she was wondering, did they get around the Canadian government allowing them access up here? Especially in an overly obvious military outpost of this kind?

She waited, expecting a call from Spark, but nothing came.

She listened more closely, the klaxons starting to sound….fainter now. As if muted.

"Electronic masking," she realized.

Now the alarms were completely silent. She didn't buy it, though. Not if they had just gone off. Something was shutting down all sound around the dome.

Which meant even Spark might not be able to get back out without help.

If her mother had taught her anything, it was that charging in blindly was a sure way to disaster.

"Always have a plan," she had taught Tala, and in time, her, "Or you're never going to win."

She glanced around, and fixed her eyes on a small helicopter near the flight line being fueled up.

"That will do," she murmured. Then she looked around a little closer, still amazed at how sharper her vision seemed to be getting the more she used it.

There. Those staggered, but less than randomly placed dishes weren't pointing out. So they weren't standard transceivers. They had to be defensive. In short, she guessed, they had to be the source of whatever was jamming outside surveillance, and even her hearing.

Steeling herself, she swallowed hard, and flung herself forward as fast as she could move.

She hit the first of the concave dishes four seconds later, traveling close to Mach One. She smashed through, ignoring the sparks and minor explosion, and kept moving as she made a complete circle around the entire complex, taking out every one of the dishes before rising high over the dome, and looking down.

She couldn't see through walls, but she could hear very, very well. Tuning in on the sounds now easily audible to her, she listened, and pinpointed several distinctive voices.

**X**

"Cat's out of the bag, Pinky," Ember shouted. "Time to do some damage, and buy Spark time to do his thing!"

He was flinging fireballs, and overheating anything that looked critical in their area as she lay down fire with the weapon she still held.

"Where's your buddies? We could use metal-head about now! Isn't he supposed to be tough?"

"Tough as they come," Ember agreed, and the entire base vibrated ominously just then, and the young meta grinned. "And it sounds like he just figured out things have gone south," he said as the walls rumbled again.

Then the ceiling came crashing down, and a blue streak smashed through the ranks of the guards cutting them off from the exits before Ada slowed, and hovered in the air before them.

"Well? Planning on moving in? Let's go," she shouted, and flew forward, smashing anything in her way out.

"And _she_ didn't want to be a hero," Ember rasped.

"Let's go," Pinky shouted, looking like herself again, but still wearing the guard's armor to help protect her.

Ember didn't argue as he raced after her, and Ada.

**X**

"I knew you would come. Eventually," the officer smirked at the narrow, reinforced tube that was filled with pulsing electricity much like a Tesla jar. "Which is why I had this little trap waiting just for you. You think you're the only one that exploit electricity, boy," the man laughed.

"Sir, something just shut down our entire containment system," the security chief shouted.

"Well, get it back up?"

"I can't contact the vacuum array," the tech wailed, tapping madly on his console. "Everything is….."

The entire dome seemed to shake, and the officer looked around.

"Did the League show up," he demanded. "Wasn't anyone watching that damned satellite for movement?"

"No movement, sir," someone shouted. "This came from outside! It's…."

"Good…..God," someone rasped as the steel doors that sealed the room bowed, and thundered, and then fell in. Five feet from the frame.

"Hey, guys, I knocked," Ada growled, "But no one answered."

"You," the officer rasped, recognizing that face.

"Meta, did you find…."

Ember stared right at the containment tube, and swore as he fired a massive burst of flame.

"Do your thing, buddy, and let's blow this place!"

"Emphasis on the blow," Dreadnaught roared as he charged into the chamber, and started smashing into anything that got in the way.

Or not.

"More guards are following," Gaia told them as the electric surge pulsed out of the tube, and flashed across the nearest consoles.

"Shut him out," the officer shouted. "Self-destruct! Now! Now!"

"Too late," Spark spat, glaring at him as he reformed just beside Gaia, and Ada.

Even as the officer swore, Pinky ran in, and stared.

"That's the guy that killed my mom," she shrieked, and aimed her weapon at the senior officer.

The man stared, but when Pinky pulled the trigger, the hammer fell with a soft click. Her rifle was empty.

Screaming, she ran at him, but he turned, and bolted through a passage that opened in the wall, closing almost as fast as he left his own people behind.

Just before a voice declared, "One minute to self-destruct."

"You heard it," Spark shouted. "Everyone, let's bail!"

"There's a chopper waiting on the east side we can use," Ada told them. "This way," she said, and turned, and flew through the corridors, clearing the way for the rest of the team.

"Go," Spark shouted, taking her lead as he followed without question.

"Okay," Robbie murmured as Ada cleared the last hall by smashing right through the armored wall to tear a hole through the final barrier to the outside. "I'm not teasing her any more!"

They had just reached the waiting aircraft, throwing the flight crew aside as Spark took control, when the entire dome exploded. The helicopter, just started to rise, bucked in the air, and almost got smashed back into the ground had Gaia not redirected the concussive blast with a wall of wind she conjured to let them rise up, and away.

"Contact Watchtower," Spark, obviously spent, rasped as he sagged in the pilot's seat, just managing to keep them airborne as they left the smoldering crater behind. "We need to debrief, and now."

_To Be Continued….._


	12. Chapter 12

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**12**

"This report is…..troubling," J'onn said as Captain Atom stood nearby.

"Feral, and I went down to inspect the sight. Nothing was left. Aside from rubble, and bodies. Anything else, obviously, was gone."

"And Spark's data remains suspect since we have no hard drives, or other evidence to present," J'onn remarked.

"Precisely," Captain Atom murmured as J'onn frowned his way.

"What bothers you now?"

"Meta. Her powers are continuing to develop. Her strength doubled exponentially during the fight from the report Spark gave me. And she can now fly."

"Not completely unexpected. She is manifesting Diana's own divine gifts."

"Even her mother wasn't that strong. Nor is her sister."

"Agreed. But she is…..different," J'onn reminded him wryly.

"To say the least."

"I would have thought you would have been gratified that she acquitted herself so well in the field."

"I'm more worried she is growing radically more powerful at every turn, and still not properly controlling it. That base had to have had hundreds working inside it."

"She wasn't at fault in that. Even she couldn't stop a madman from self-destructing his own command."

"Perhaps, but bringing that civilian into the heart of a battle…."

"A very unique civilian. One that directly identified General Houston Aiers as not only the self-styled villain Glory-Hound, but the very man that killed her mother five years ago."

"I read the report," Captain Atom scowled.

"Just what really displeases you, my friend. I can sense your worry has more fuel than merely Meta's development, or is it this resurgence of Cadmus?"

"Cadmus," he all but growled. "We missed them for over ten years while they grew back right under our noses," he told J'onn. "Ten years. You know what they pulled last time. Who knows what they have planned this time. What kind of….mess they may be instigating."

"I do agree. If they are willing to destroy their own site, then it couldn't be their only operation. If they were willing to wipe out men, and materials on that level, then they must have similar sites elsewhere. Perhaps, even more dangerous ones."

"True," Captain Atom nodded. "But I've been thinking of something no one else has bothered to mention. We all know who her grandfather is, J'onn. Add that to the mix, and then her father, and…. What if she's a time bomb? One that will blow up in our faces if we're not very careful. Cadmus can't want her on a whim. They must know, too. And they must want her for….whatever they're planning."

J'onn nodded.

"That is probably true. But she's part of Team Gamma now. Do you think telling her she must now go into hiding is going to go over well with her now that she's just starting to fit in here?"

"J'onn…"

The door suddenly opened, and Meta stepped inside. She walked over to face the pair, and just stared.

Then she pointed turned to eye Captain Marvel.

"You might be interested in knowing my hearing is sharper than ever now, too. In fact, I could hear every word while you two were discussing me. _Every_ word," she quipped before he could say anything.

"Then you have to know we have a right to be concerned."

"Who just bailed out your team of hotshots down there," she shot. "They almost had the whole team trapped. They took out Spark, who I thought was supposed to be untouchable. Who knows what else was down there? So stop whining, and get over it."

"Now, listen to me, young lady…..!"

"Zip it, or don't you want to hear the _rest_ of our report," she asked as she glanced back as the rest of the team walked into the room just then.

"Rest of your report," J'onn asked quietly.

"We didn't share it all, because it looks like you guys might have a leak," Ada told them as the door shut, and she spoke only after Spark nodded. "As I said, my hearing is better than ever. Just before I took out their security balloon, or whatever it was…."

"A static vacuum sphere," Spark told her.

"Yeah, whatever," Ada waved as if that meant nothing. In fact, she likely knew better than anyone else what was involved. "The point is, I heard the general babbling about someone watching the Watchtower, _and_ the League. You guys have a leak. One that is making sure you don't go where they don't want you to go. Get it?"

"Unfortunately, that makes far too much sense," J'onn agreed. "It is not the first time that our government liaisons were exploited to manipulate our movements."

"And yet you still keep letting them….."

"It is the cost of maintaining our presence on a global stage," Captain Atom cut her off. "Even you have to know that."

"Maybe. But if you know it's happened before, it's kind of stupid to get taken in again. Don't you think?"

"I do," Gaia murmured.

"What do you suggest," the silver hero asked bluntly, looking as somber as she had ever seen him.

The five teammates all glanced at one another, and then nodded to Ada.

"We find their real headquarters, and take them out. What Spark didn't tell you, was that our friend Pinky tipped us to something that puts their plans in perspective. They aren't just stealing powers from metas, or trying to register us. They are using the registration act to sample DNA profiles, and using nannite-fusion technology to create what they're calling _Project Failsafe_. A meta containment program meant to control all metas on the planet. Or eliminate them."

"Again," Captain Atom said quietly, his eyes narrowing as they flashed fire. "When will they learn?"

"In time. One hopes," J'onn replied. "Still, Meta is right. If they are anywhere near completing this project, we must find it, and stop it, before they unleash another monster on mankind."

"Because Brainiac, Doomsday, and Eiling weren't enough the first time around," Dreadnaught huffed, having read up on the old files just to fill in his own questions.

"What about Pinky," Ada demanded now.

"She is still in medical, being….examined," Captain Atom told her.

"I know that. Why won't your flunkies let me see her. She's got to be freaked by all this."

"She was in quarantine for her own protection," the hero told her.

"Yeah? You sure you're not handing fresh samples to Cadmus spies," Gaia asked when Ada just glared.

J'onn met Captain Atom's look of alarm, and glanced away for a moment.

"They are not spies. Your friend is now in the general clinic, and free to receive visitors," J'onn told them after a moment of apparent distraction. "Still, you do make an excellent point," he told Ada. "Maybe it is time we reviewed our own security systems again," he spoke directly to his companion this time.

"I can accept that," Captain Atom nodded. "But the girl stays here until this is settled. We don't need another civilian getting involved….."

"She's already involved," Ada pointed out.

"Or hurt," he concluded. "Which is why the Wilson girl remains here, too."

"Mr. Wilson wasn't there," Spark said as if sensing the question yet to be asked. "So it's time we got back to the hunt. After we check on Ada's friends."

"We had better bring in the rest of the League on this, too. We obviously have more of an issue here than first indicated," J'onn said gravely.

"Duh, comes to mind," Gaia muttered.

"That's just what I was going to say," Robbie agreed. "Great minds, huh?"

"Not even going to try touching that one," Ember sighed.

"Smart," Ada told him.

"What," Robbie sputtered as they turned to leave.

"Meta," J'onn called out.

"Yes?"

"In one respect, I do agree with Captain Atom. You should reassess your control over your powers before you go out again. Just to be sure."

She eyed the Martian, and then zipped across the room, then back, and drawled, "Catch," before walking out.

J'onn caught the aluminum can with a colorful label, and stared at it.

Then turned it around.

It was perfectly smooth except for the smiley face carved into it by a very sharp nail.

"Now she's showing off," Captain Atom muttered.

"She does have her own style, doesn't she," J'onn almost smiled. "Much like her mother."

"God help us," the former military man complained.

**X**

"Then she just slammed through that steel wall like she was busting through Styrofoam, and tells the geek, 'Hey, guys, I knocked, but no one answered.' You had to see his face to believe it," Pinky chortled as she told Barb the story as she sat in the clinic bed fully dressed, but lounging as if content to be there. "Oh, hey, Ada. Or do I call you Meta up here?"

"Ada works," she smiled. "How are you doing?"

"Sweet. I can't believe you were a part of all this all year, and never shared."

"Uh, secrecy?"

"Uh-huh, cause it kept all the bad guys from spying, right? Tell me another."

"Well, it's supposed to," Ada said, and came over, and nodded at Barb. "She did tell you that your dad wasn't there. Right?"

"Yeah. She told me you figured out he wasn't in that place before it…."

"We'll find him, Barb. Don't worry. And we'll shut these freaks down."

"Believe it," Robbie grinned, slamming a hard fist into his own palm, the armored gauntlets making a faint ringing echo. "And then we'll show them some old-school beat-down. Right, Pinky?"

"Hey, I'm strictly second-string. That was _not_ fun, even if I would have liked to empty that clip all over again after I found that…..jerk."

"You'll get another chance," Robbie told him.

"Honestly, I'm not sure I want it. At the time….it was all a haze. But….I'm not sure I want that. I can….understand what you feel now," she said to Ada. "Just because I'm…..different, doesn't make me a hero."

"I can respect that," Ada told her.

"Different?"

No one said anything as Ada looked at Barb.

"Well, I might have been exposed to….something that lets me….uh, change my looks," Pinky finally told her.

"You're…. Oh….my…..God," Barb gaped, staring at her very twin now sitting where Pinky had been.

"Tah-dah," the girl said, shifting back to her own face. "How's that for a party trick?"

"Weird," Barb muttered, just staring at her.

"Anyway, it's hardly enough to make me want to join the jock's club here with Ada."

"Jock's club," Robbie sputtered.

Pinky just grinned.

"You can….keep my little secret, though. Right, Barbie," Pinky asked.

"Who would believe me," the slightly older blonde sputtered.

"Too many of the _wrong_ people," Spark told her.

"Besides, I'd hate to use my power for evil. I mean, just imagine if you ratted me out," she grinned at Bar. "Forcing me to take refuge in your face, and pretending to be you. Ruining your life forever by slumming with all the wrong people, and partying nonstop until everyone thinking I'm you…."

"Pinky," Ada growled.

"Teasing," Pinky laughed, holding up her hands in surrender as Ada glared, and Barb just stared in horror at her.

"Honest. I was teasing. You wouldn't rat out friends. Would you, Barbie?"

"Just….don't call me Barbie any more, and we have a deal, Darla," she said quietly.

"That's cool. But you have to call me Pinky. Darla doesn't work. Especially with Ada already having a Carla run around. Imagine the confusion!"

"Yeah, because anyone would ever mistake you for Carla," Ada smirked.

Barb did laugh now.

"I think she's safe."

"I'm just glad you are both okay. J'onn says he's keeping you both up here a little longer. Until we get to the bottom of this one. Now that we know some of the major players, the rest of the League will be getting involved. Hopefully, they will take some of the pressure off of us. And you," Ada added, looking pointedly at Barb.

"Thanks. In case I forgot, or forget. Thank you for everything you've done. Or will do," the girl told her. "All of you," she said to the team.

"No problem, gorgeous," Robbie grinned. "So, got any dances coming up you need an escort….?"

"Out, Romeo," Ember shoved him.

"You get used to him," Spark said blandly as he turned to go, too.

"Or, you can punch him through a few walls," Gaia smirked at Ada. "That usually gets his attention, too. Right, Meta."

Ada only blushed.

"You didn't," Pinky gasped.

"So, those holes the crew was repairing this week," Barb asked.

"He ticked me off, okay," Ada blushed.

"Remind me never to make you mad," Pinky faked a shudder.

"How strong are you," Barb asked.

_"Steel_ walls," Pinky whispered to her.

"We'll meet you in the training chamber," Gaia shouted over her shoulder as she left with the rest of the team. "You know Cap won't let us go until you do what he said."

"Hey, can I watch," Pinky asked.

Barb even looked interested.

"If Phase allows it," Ada finally just shrugged.

"Now, _she_ scares me," Barb shivered. "She's….weird."

"You just met my team, and you think Phase is weird?"

"She's like a ghost," Barb sputtered. "A real ghost."

"You haven't seen Spark do his thing," Pinky grinned.

"I'll call Phase, and see if she agrees to observers," Ada said when both girls eyed her. "After all, this is just an assessment. Not an actual training mission."

"Assessment?"

"Yeah, Cap is freaked over my power fluctuations, and thinks I might not be controlling myself properly."

"Well, nothing says 'out of control' like punching through steel walls!"

"Not helping," Ada huffed at Robbie.

Pinky, predictably, laughed.

"You, girl, are nuts," Ada complained.

Pinky didn't argue.

**X**

"How is she doing," J'onn asked, startling the two girls who stared at him when he appeared beside Phase as the team ran through a standard take-down practice with robotic felons playing the bad guys. The sensors in each robot not only gauged the force used against them, but reported if the subsequent 'injuries' were incapacitating, critical, or even lethal.

"I'm really surprised," the silver-haired woman replied. "Her motor control is nothing short of exceptional compared to her earlier performances. She is faster, but ironically more coordinated, and she moves in tandem with the team far more smoothly than at first, too. If I didn't know better, I would think you slipped a ringer in on me."

"Have you tested her surges," he asked.

"Next level up. I'm tossing a surprise their way that should rattle all of them. It'll be a good test of their ability to adapt."

"Good. Captain Atom is concerned about her mood swings, too. Considering her past, it has to be addressed."

"Understood," she nodded as Pinky looked back from Spark shooting past one of the robots in electrical form to allow Dreadnaught and Meta to smash through the barricade of imposing metal might.

"Mood swings," the pink-haired blonde asked.

"Ada has…issues. You should talk to her," Barb said quietly, glancing at the Martian.

J'onn eyed the other blonde, but said nothing.

Barb couldn't help but shrink even from his innocuous gaze.

It was kind of hard to be her usual bland self when you knew someone had been inside your head, and now knew all your secrets.

"Your friend is right, Ms. Wilson. If you wish, you should speak to Adanna about her….issues. It might even help you both."

"Uh, whatever you say, Green-bean."

"Green-bean," J'onn drawled, looking nonplussed.

"That's just….Pinky," Barb told him, looking uneasy. "She's…..nuts like that."

"Indeed," he said, and Phase remarked, "You might want to watch this, J'onn. I'm about to amp the session up a level."

**X**

One moment, Ada had been smacking the robot drones that were supposed to be hoods around, and even having a little fun since she didn't really have to worry about breaking anything. Or anyone.

Then, a very big foot stomped down on her, and smashed her into the ground. Literally, into the ground.

She peeled herself up out of the bulkhead, and looked up, and up, and up.

"Oh, you have to be kidding me," she moaned, seeing the apparent simulacrum of one her mom's old foes, the freak that called herself Titan.

Not related to the late, unlamented Giganta, she used some of the old technology left behind to recreate the woman's powers, and turned herself into a fifty foot powerhouse before she decided stealing bank vaults was a great way to finance her retirement.

The last she had head, Titan still in lockdown, wearing a special collar designed to shock her witless if she tried to grow so much as an inch. It was a collar never intended to be removed. The simulacrum towering over her, and which had just moved on to try to smash Gaia into the far wall, wasn't wearing such a collar.

"Should have known this was going too easy," she muttered, and flew fast to grab Ember before he could be turned into a smear on the wall.

"Stay out of the way," she told him, dropping him across the room. "If this one is like the real Titan, she is pretty much brute force, and plenty of it."

"Then leave her to me," Dreadnaught crowed, and ran straight at one big leg.

And got kicked face-first into the bulkhead when the giant proved faster than she looked.

"Meta," Spark shouted, ducking a massive fist. "I can't control it. It's not like the drones. There's nothing for me to overload!"

"On it," Meta nodded, and flew straight up, smashing twin fists under that big chin, and driving the big female up off her feet a few inches, and staggering her back several feet.

But that was all.

"That all you got, gnat," the very real Titan grinned a very ominous sneer as both fists came up.

"Holy….crap," Ada howled. "I think she's the real thing!"

"What do you know," the apparent Titan smirked. "You might be smarter than your mommy, girl. Too bad you weren't smart enough to retire, too," she spat, and slammed both fists into Ada's body, driving her back to the deck, and then smashing her down into it.

"Phase," J'onn gasped, watching in astonishment from the booth. "What is going on here?"

"Trust me," the woman said, simply watching as Ada slowly sat up, her eyes glittering brightly, and glaring at the giantess that was headed right for her, swatting her teammates away like insects. Which, to her, they were.

J'onn frowned just as darkly as Pinky and Barb, but they all watched.

Back on the floor, Ada sat up, glaring, and began to rise into the air.

"Okay, Granny," she shouted. "I don't know how you got up here, but I know where you're going. _Down!"_

"Oh, ho! Big talk for a little girl!"

Ada ducked the next fist, and the next. The knee surprised her, and drove her up into the ceiling hard enough to leave an impression.

"I love soccer," the giant brunette in the gray bodysuit laughed as Ada fell halfway back to the deck before catching herself. "Score," she shouted, and backhanded her hard enough to smash her into the bulkhead again.

"This is getting old," Ada hissed, and turned to eye the giantess as her bewildered teammates wisely worked at staying out of her way. And from under her feet.

Then she smirked.

"Yo, Bimbo," she shouted. "You here to try out for the entertainment division?"

Titan's head spun around, glowering at her.

"If you are, you're in the wrong room!"

"You little cow. I'll show you a bimbo!"

"Mom had you begged," she quipped, flashing past her to hover just behind her. "All boob, no brain."

"I beat your mother, little girl, and I'll…..!"

"Please, you never beat mom once she figured out your weakness," Ada grinned just a little manically. "And she told me!" Titan frowned.

"She didn't!"

Ada flashed down, both fists hitting her in the side hard enough to make her stagger. Then, before Titan could react, Ada was gone, flying around to smash into her other side. Then back to the first. Back and forth, rocking her, and making her stagger.

Titan moaned, and staggered more overtly, then slowly toppled to sit down hard, looking distinctively green.

"Whoa," Dreadnaught howled, barely getting out of the way. "Not the way I want to meet chicks!"

Meta grinned, flew up, and hovered right in front of the woman that should still be in jail.

"Night-night," she said, and flew right into the center of her forehead, smacking her head back against the bulkhead. The woman was shinking even as she collapsed.

Then Ada turned, still hovering in the air as she looked up at Phase with a cold gaze.

**X**

"Phase," J'onn demanded.

"The woman is okay. Meta only used just enough force to knock her out. I'm surprised at how easily she overwhelmed her, though," she said with a frown. "Even Amazon had trouble with her at that size. Her bulk makes her all but impervious to most….."

"Want to explain that," Ada demanded angrily, all but slamming through the door a moment later. "Because last I heard, that bitch was still in lockdown. Where she belonged!"

"Calm down, and I'll explain," she said even as two physicians appeared below to carry the unconscious Titan out.

"I'd like to hear this one," Spark said grimly as he arrived next. "Last I heard, we didn't use real villains in our training sessions."

"Technically, Ola is not a villain. Not any longer. She's on parole. Considering her….skills, I talked her into coming her to join our training staff."

"And you trust her!"

"Your mother personally cleared her. For the job, and for this session," Phase told her.

Ada blinked.

_"Mom….knew….?"_

"Meta, you have to know that with your extraordinary power fluctuations, we had to know if you had a grasp on them, and could control them even under….extraordinary circumstances. Captain Atom had a valid point in that. We all felt that Titan's surprise appearance would be a viable test. Now, I am interested in how you bested her so easily."

"Mom found out she's got a motion sickness problem," Ada finally grumbled. "She can't handle flying well at all. It stood to reason that a little induced simulated motion would trigger her condition, making her easier to manage," she told her.

"And you did it without unduly injuring, or killing her," Pinky grinned. "So your silver buttinski can get off your back now, right?"

"Your what," Phase asked, looking at the two of them.

"This exercise is over," Ada finally told Phase, staring holes at her. "Don't _ever_ do that to me again. Or you will regret it."

She then turned, and walked out.

"Whoa," Pinky exclaimed.

"Indeed," J'onn murmured. "For a moment, she sounded very much like Diana."

"That's not who I was thinking about," Phase said tellingly as she stared after the girl. Whose blue eyes had shimmered a very disturbing red for a moment there.

_To Be Continued….. _


	13. Chapter 13

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**13**

"You're certain," Captain Atom asked as Diana and Amazon both sat in the room with her.

"Very," Phase told them. "I was ready to fade out if necessary. For a moment, I thought it was. Her eyes took on a very bright crimson shade. As if they were burning from the inside."

"I'd better speak to Kal," Diana said quietly.

"He's on a mission," Captain Atom reminded her. "Deep space for the next few weeks."

"Great," Amanda sighed. "You do know how ironic it is that Adana started out as the most normal of my children?"

"So normal we never paid him, or rather, her any attention," Captain Atom nodded. "A mistake we have to correct. Not just in _her_ case."

"It does beg the point of our classifying certain metas as inconsequential," Amazon told them. "Considering how Adana started….."

"I wonder how many more….potential problems….have been overlooked because we made this mistake in our classifications," he murmured.

"I hope you're not suggesting we follow Cadmus' example, and start locking up anyone that might possess special abilities," Diana asked, looking a bit curt.

"Of course not, but we cannot afford to overlook….."

"Let's not get into an argument no one can win here," Phase cut them off. "This is about Meta. While I agree that she is….still manifesting, I don't think you've grasped the most astonishing factor of all in this case."

"Please, go on," Diana nodded.

"When Adana first…..changed….. We all know she was scared. Clumsy. Even careless. She broke things. A lot. Even after her initial training, she obviously killed at least one man when she faced those gunmen. Only with every apparent power surge, she is now finding an instinctive grasp on that power, and managing it like….."

"A warrior born," Diana smiled.

"You could say that," Phase said. "I have to wonder about her father's influence. As well as her grandfather."

"Adana never knew her father. He…..died before she was two."

"Yes. But the genetic influence cannot be discounted. Strength, flight, and her remarkable senses aside, I believe that Meta purposely held back her….heat vision when she glared at me. I think she knew exactly what was about to happen, and stopped it."

"If you're right," Captain Atom asked. "She may well be becoming the most powerful member the League has ever seen in years."

"But does she still want to go back, and live a normal life," Amazon demanded, still in civilian garb herself. "That would still be her right if she wants it."

"Indeed. She never changed her mind the entire time on the island," Diana nodded at her daughter. "Mother said she had never seen so resolute a mind in all her time."

"Right now, we have to deal with this new resurgence of Cadmus, and whatever Project Failsafe might be."

"Granted," Diana told Captain Atom. "But right now, we have to show her that we trust her. Second-guessing her, and trying to undermine her will only bring out her resentment….. Amanda?"

She nodded at the door.

"Ada's outside. Listening," she said in a somber tone.

"Come inside, Meta," Diana called, knowing why her daughter sounded so grim considering what they had just been discussing.

The door opened, and the young woman in blue stepped into the room alone this time.

"Grandmother. Mother."

"Something on your mind, daughter," Amanda smiled.

"Funny you should mention trust."

"Ada…."

"Mother, when were you going to tell me about my father? When were you going to admit he wasn't just a deadbeat that ran off on us?"

Amanda looked grim.

"At the time, it was….easier for all of us," she told her. "Especially Tala. The last thing I wanted was my children running off to get hurt, or worse chasing some ghost that might have killed their father."

No, she started to say. Instead, you ran off to play vigilante, and ended up roped into the League, and losing any semblance of a normal life. It was obvious to her, that even when Amazon retired, her mother never really left the League. Not really.

She did not say that, though.

"Who was he, mother? Why did he die?"

"I….don't know. That is, I don't know why he died. But, your father was a very good man," Amanda told her. "His name was Jason West. The last real Flash's son. He wasn't as fast as Walter, but he was fast enough. And I loved him."

"Where did Winter come from?"

"It was a name I took to distance us from our own pasts. When I first tried to live a completely normal life. Obviously, that did not exactly work out as planned," Amanda told her.

Adana never once looked at Captain Atom, who had already told her much of this. And more.

"What was dad doing that got him killed, mother? I can't believe you didn't find out. That you didn't look?"

"I looked. And then I left it alone. While I reacted at first, in anger, I admit, and became Amazon, trying to track his killer, I still had two children to think about, and that was what brought me peace in the end. Even if I never could solve his murder."

"I think you left a lot out," Adana said somberly, still not mentioning what Captain Atom had told her.

About how she had left her children with Diana, and gone hunting the assassin ready to kill. About a long, ultimately unfruitful search for a mystery man that even those who hired him couldn't identity. She had found one of the men who had apparently hired the assassin, but it did little to ease her pain. Still, after linking one name to Jason's death, and having them arrested, she realized she did have to consider her children. So she changed her name, disappeared for a time, and Amanda Winter became her only identity for quite some time.

However, even Captain Atom didn't know why Jason was killed.

"You really never found out why?"

"I found out why. Never who."

"Then why," Adana asked bluntly.

She sighed.

"Jason was working on meta rights. A certain politician wanted him shut up, because his political action group was starting to get a lot of influence on the Hill. When he couldn't be bought off, or scared off, they decided to kill him. Shortly after his death, his group faded, and the registration act was passed."

"That's a very good why," Adana said coldly. "But I'm betting someone still knows the who."

"I don't have mother's lasso, and even I didn't push as hard as I could. Maybe should have. We do have limitations. As….good guys. Or girls," Amanda told her.

"Apparently," she murmured as she walked over, and put a hand on her mother's shoulder.

"You should have told me. Sooner."

"I was waiting. For the right moment."

"So, telling me he was a bum that ran off on an Amazon warrior was better," she scowled.

"Unlike you, dear, I never inherited the wisdom of Athena," Amanda smiled wanly. "Can you forgive me?"

"Does Tala know?"

"No. I never told her, either."

"You should. Soon. She deserves to know the truth."

Amanda nodded.

"I will."

"You are maturing," Diana smiled at her. "Tell me, what will you do now?"

"Now? It's obvious, Wonder Woman," she called her grandmother by her appellation. "We go after the politicians that arranged father's death."

"We are not in the business of….."

"Hold it, right there," Adana pointed at the man as Captain Atom started to rise, his voice actually rising a degree. "You are the one not using your mind, here. _Think._ They shut down dad's group, got the meta registration act passed to exploit it. Likely for a then already present Cadmus reboot. Now, we have whispers of this new Cadmus about to launch a meta containment project they feel will not only hold, but control the metas around them. That cannot be allowed to succeed, Captain. Not for a single instant. All of that implies the politicians involved have to be complicit with Cadmus."

"I agree. Amazon and I will take the Capital. Meta," Diana nodded at her granddaughter. "I want you, and your teammates standing by. The moment we find another lead on a likely site, you need to find Mr. Wilson, and shut down this Failsafe they are planning."

"One question," Captain Atom asked, now standing as he looked right at Adana.

"Yes?"

"Did you really manifest heat vision akin to Kal-El's? Were you really able to stop it when it seemed about to explode, as Phase indicated?"

Adana glanced at Phase's nearby Styrofoam cup, now empty, and it abruptly melted into a misshapen blob on the table.

"Any other questions?"

"How did you know…how to control it?"

She grinned at Phase.

"I just….knew," she shrugged.

"Is there…..anything else," Amanda asked her daughter.

"Honestly, I don't know. I didn't even know I could fly until I jumped out of the jet-van before it blew up."

Her mother grimaced.

"Back to practice," Captain Atom more ordered than suggested. "Until we have a lead, you need to fine-tune your abilities, and assess just what you can, or can't do. You might need that knowledge. Soon."

"I have another question first. Mom, did you really agree to conscript _Titan_ for this….job?"

"Ola is not only a powerhouse, but a very smart woman," Amanda told her. "Unfortunately, like many on parole, she has no place to go. No options to take her there. I thought, giving her a chance rather than throwing her back onto the street to lapse back into criminal ways would keep us from having to face her again anytime soon."

"I can see that," she murmured, and walked out.

"I give her another week before she tries to take leadership from Spark," Phase said very earnestly.

"The way she is developing, he may give it to her," Diana smiled.

"That is not the way we do things," Captain Atom glowered at the two.

"Oh, give it a rest," Amanda muttered. "Honestly, sometimes you're as bad as _dad."_

Captain Atom said nothing to that.

**X**

"You okay?"

The dark-haired woman turned from the bed where she had been laying before getting up to pull on her boots.

"You pack a punch, gorgeous," the older woman smiled, rubbing her chin. "I'm going to be feeling that one days."

"If I hadn't figured out you were….human, you'd be worse off. I was ready to take your head off."

"Glad you are smarter than your mom, then," the woman told her.

"Mom said she agreed to give you a chance here."

"Well, I might not be a….criminal genius, but I know something about tactics. I'm also pretty good when it comes to tech."

"You still pack a mean punch, too."

"Yeah, but I don't go all out much these days. It costs, and I'm going to be feeling it for days, just like I said. Still," Ola Kalinski nodded as she sat down, eyeing her one bare foot. "Your mom did surprise me by offering me a job up here. It's more than I expected."

"Mom's big on second chances," Adana told her. "For what it's worth, I hope it works out."

"Even after all that tough talk earlier?"

"I get…..moody when people push me," Adana admitted.

"Remind me to avoid you during your monthlies."

Adana blushed crimson.

"Seriously, though, you weren't bad, girl. Your mom never handled me that well. I haven't been hit that hard since the last time old Supes wailed on me."

Adana said nothing to that.

"Well, I do hope things work out," she said as she started to leave.

"So, why did you really come here?"

Adana glanced back at her, glancing around, and then walked over to press a button on a nearby console.

"Now, no one's listening. I just have one question. I'm hoping you can answer it, since you have….connections the League doesn't."

"Yeah," Ola asked.

"I heard about a certain assassin. No one knows his name. No one knows who he even is, and yet politicians, and bigshots can hire him. Would you happen to know….?"

"Forget you ever heard about that one, kid," Ola told her, utterly pale as she stared at her now, her other boot forgotten as she looked at her. "I mean that. This guy…. He's _poison_ to poison. Get it? You don't want to ever draw his attention. Ever."

"Then you know him."

It wasn't a question.

"I…..I have heard of him. Never met. Never wanted to meet. I heard about a guy that crossed him, though. They still haven't found him. Get it? And this guy, he wasn't known to be careless, or a pushover. But he just….vanished."

"Then how do you know….?"

"Because he's not the type to just go away. Not in the middle of one of his typical capers. He crossed this guy, though, and the next day….. Poof. Instant disappearing act. Yet no one saw a thing. No one heard a thing. He's that good. You don't want to draw his attention. Trust me on that."

"He killed my father," Adana said quietly.

"I'm sorry," Ola told her earnestly.

"And I think he's tied to a resurgence of Cadmus."

"Please, tell me you're kidding," she groaned.

Adana shook her head.

"Anything you can tell me…."

"All I know is a word. They _say,_ if you type that word, and put it on a certain search engine, he'll find you. You never know where, or when. But _he_ does the finding. I don't think you want him to find you."

Adana considered the past few days, and her friends, and family.

"What's the word," she asked quietly.

**X**

"I have a lead," she told Gordon that evening in the mess, well away from any of the others present. "But I need to be able to be alone to pursue it. The thing is, I can't be….me, doing it, either. Know what I mean?"

"So, you need a fake ID to set you up somewhere? Why not talk to….?"

"This is not exactly an…..authorized investigative pathway I'm taking here. But if I'm right, it will take us right to the masterminds behind the whole thing."

"What do you need," Gaia asked as Ember and Dreadnaught just sat eating, pretending not to notice anything.

"I need a place to stage a meet. An ordinary place where no one will think twice about who I might be. Or might not be. It's a gamble, but if this works, we can bring some of mystery men out from behind the curtains."

"Sounds like it's worth a shot to me," Robert declared. "No way you going in alone, though. Even you need backup, Meta."

"I'll have you on frequency, on standby, but I can't have anyone in my immediate vicinity. This guy would notice."

"You sound like you're expecting a heavy-hitter," Gordon realized.

"Very heavy. Cadmus's hired gun."

"Oh, hell," Todd rasped. "The same guy that took out your old man?"

"How did you know that," she turned on him.

"Gossip flies even here. It wasn't that long ago that Amazon was tearing up D.C. looking for ghosts, and a lot of people were wanting her tried for assaulting some pretty high-placed people," Gordon told her. "I get the feeling you're looking at the same dead-end she did."

"Wrong. The dead-end just took a new road. I have a solid lead. I just need the place to stage a meet."

"First, tell me everything."

"Only if you give your word to help, and _not_ run to Captain Atom."

Gordon sighed.

"This isn't about vengeance. Well, maybe in part. But you know I'm right. The regular League couldn't do this, trust me. It has to be…..covert. Someone this guy would never even think suspicious. And if I'm right, we blow the lid off Cadmus, and the government's meta double-cross when we drag this guy into the light."

"All right. Open mikes, and you don't engage without backup," Gordon said curtly. "Agreed?"

"Agreed. From what I've been putting together, this guy is super-cautious, and twice as sneaky. It'll likely take us all to bring him down. But if I can lure him out, we can, and then that makes finding the real Cadmus a lot easier."

"I say do it," Gaia nodded. "Girl got a right to bang the head of the man that took her dad."

"Yeah," Ember nodded.

"Whatever works," Robbie nodded in turn. "So, how do we do it?"

"I go back to college," Adana told them.

**X**

"We have a problem," J'onn told Captain Atom as he walked into the conference room where the hero was going over reports on his teams.

"I already know about Meta conscripting a safe house to lure out the Cadmus assassin. She's not that smart. Ms. Kelinski told me everything."

"I see. That is clever," the Martian murmured, "But that isn't what I was referring to, Captain."

"No," the man asked, looking up from the table. "Then what is it?"

"Recall Ms. Steele. Meta's friend?"

"The….elastic one?"

"Indeed. You recall she displayed an ability to shape-shift, and apparently explained it as a reaction to a vial she took from her mother's job the day she died? A vial spilled on her when the car crashed into the river?"

"I read the report."

"Have you….interacted with the young lady?"

"No. She struck me as a bit….insolent. I get enough of that from some of the novices. I don't need it from the civilians."

"I think it's more than that. I think….it's an external influence."

"External influence? Bad parenting? What do you mean?"

"Think, Captain. She is exposed to a pink serum that makes her genetic structure completely….malleable. Able to shift into anything she can imagine. Her personality is erratic, insolent, and somewhat unstable. And I've noted I _cannot_ read her mind."

"You're…..describing _Plastic Man_. But O'Brian vanished years ago."

"Yes, he did, didn't he? Just about the time the first meta registrations were starting."

"Oh, hell. If someone was able to distill whatever unstable chemicals gave him his powers….."

"It is possible they were passed on to Ms. Wilson. It's equally possible that some part of his genetic matrix was passed, too, giving her a degree of his personality, and….his quirks."

"Maybe it's the malleability itself that influences the behavior," Captain Atom reasoned. "Still, either way, it suggests a troubling alternative to certain missing, or retired heroes we thought just laying low now."

"Yes, it does, doesn't it."

"Suddenly, Meta's ploy seems a lot more dangerous than I envisioned. We need someone inside. Someone that no one can see coming, just in case."

"How about me," a snide tone asked.

Both heroes looked around, seeing nothing.

"Right here, guys," Pinky said as her head rose out of a chair sitting across the room. "How much more stealthy can you get if no one even _knows_ you're here?"

"Clever," Captain Atom murmured, and eyed J'onn.

"I couldn't even sense your mind. In fact, it occurs to me, I can no more read your mind, than I could Plastic Man's."

"So, you're saying I really did somehow get his powers?"

"It seems more than likely," J'onn said somberly. "Which means, young lady, you might need more help than you imagine."

"I don't know," the blonde, now fully human, walked over to lean against the table with a smirk. "Sounds like you guys are the ones needing help. And if I can do anything for Ada, you better believe I'm in. So, tell me what to do?"

"First, we'd better brief you on O'Brian's…..abilities, and ascertain just what you can, or can't do. If you have even a degree of his abilities, you might be just what we need," Captain Atom actually smiled.

"Okay, I didn't think you smiled. What's with the shark teeth, silver butt?"

"Silver butt," he sputtered.

"She calls me Green-bean," J'onn sighed.

Captain Atom tried very hard not to groan.

_To Be Continued….._


	14. Chapter 14

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**14**

"You got the plan," Gordon asked not for the first time as he handed her a blue equipment bag, after personally explaining the wallet was really a microburst transceiver that shouldn't be capable of being jammed. It would keep them in touch no matter what happened.

In the bag was also a few things any average teen would carry, and enough cash to 'interest' an apparent mercenary.

Everything else was in her head. The code words. The plan. The address to the safe house just two blocks from the campus where she would set up the meet by posing as someone other than Adana Winter.

She beamed down to the park near the campus, walking over to the library in casual clothes, with a blonde wig, and took a table well away from anyone else to boot up the search engine Ola Kelinski had told her about.

In the space, she wrote simply, _Desperate girl needs Target hit_.

She pushed the search button. Then waited as the results showed a blank page still loading.

Considering the college used a major broadband company, she doubted it was sluggish. She waited, trying not to look too anxious, and then five minutes later, the page loaded with a simple sentence.

"_Where would she meet her Target_?"

She typed in the address of the safe house.

_Twenty minutes, _was the immediate reply this time, as if they knew she was fifteen minutes from the house.

She fought not to run, and mentally reviewed her cover that presented an uneasy, perhaps genuinely desperate coed who needed a problem taken care of that required extreme measures. Her background, already carefully set in place, suggested she was a trust-fund girl with a guardian siphoning off her legacy while he played the concerned family friend.

Hopefully, it was believable enough to smoke this guy out. Hopefully, she was right about being able to handle him.

She made it home with three minutes to spare. After all, she didn't want to super-speed home, and tip her hand right off. For all she knew, this guy had someone, or someway to watch her. She had to keep up appearances. She fumbled with her door key, adding to her 'anxious' demeanor, and walked into the small house she was allegedly renting.

Even as she shut the door, she turned to face a shadow that moved out of the hall, and eyed her.

The mask, she knew, looked just distinctive enough to suggest someone long dead.

Or, supposedly dead.

"Are you…..?"

"No names. Just tell me one reason I don't erase _you_, instead of your alleged problems," the man in the mask that was black on one side, dark gold on the other, showing only one eye in the colors. The rest of his costume was a reversal of the same color scheme. He had a belt full of throwing knives. Two suspicious gauntlets on his wrists, and equipment pouches on his forearms, and calves.

So if he wasn't the Titan's old nemesis Slade, supposedly long dead, then he was obviously connected to him somehow.

Great. Even she knew that Slade, as Deathstroke, had been one of the most formidable mercenaries alive for years.

"I have…money. I saved all I could. I…"

"I know about your problems. The question is, how did a nobody like you get my contact information? That's what I'm really curious about, girl? So, why don't you take off the cheap wig, and tell me what this is really about."

Adana stared.

"How did you know I was wearing a wig?"

He smirked.

"Your coloring is off."

"I'm attending school incognito. That's all. You don't know how much the price of fame can ruin your life," she blustered.

"I think I might surprise you. You, however, don't surprise me. Take off the wig."

She pulled if off.

"You're supposed to be Regina Holston? I don't see it. Too lean. Too fit. You're hardly the image of a trust fund baby."

"I like to work out," Adana said, and carefully set her bag down on the nearby end table, just in case.

"Then, too, there is that very distinctive visage. And the gleam of those oh, so interesting bracelets under your sleeves. I've been wanting to meet you, _Adana Winter_, for some time."

She blinked.

"You are good. Maybe as good as the original Wilson."

It was hard to say through that mask, but she had the feeling he smirked.

"It's just as well you're here. I have a lot of very interested people that would like to meet you."

"Funny, you should say so," she said, and raised her fists. "I'm looking for them myself. Something about….Project Failsafe? Cadmus? General Aiers? Any of that ringing any bells?"

"You're smarter than they thought if you've already put all _that_ together. I'm afraid you will have to come along. You know too much to be….."

The man went flying as she moved forward, smashing a fist into his jaw, and sending him back through the hall, bouncing off the far wall, and smirked, expecting him to fall.

Instead, he bounced, rolled back to his feet, and produced two long sais that expanded out of his sleeves as if they had been collapsed until that moment.

"Not bad. Now, it's my turn, little girl," he smirked. Adana blocked the first few blows, then one of the sighs crackled with arcane energy as it brushed her side, and Adana went down screaming.

_"Dad!?"_

Target spun around, staring at the blonde that had somehow just appeared behind him. Even he had not detected her when the young Amazon bitch had walked into the house. He frowned, and stared at the girl in a simple, dark blue bodysuit that stank of League design.

"Darla? What are you doing here?"

"Dad," Ada groaned, slowly sitting up. _"He's_ your dad?"

"Well, I didn't know that until now, did I? Jeez, it's not like he sit me down, and said, 'Sweetie, the reason I travel so much is I'm an international hitman _bumping off_ all your friends!'"

"Girl," he growled.

"What? Gonna send me to bed without supper? Jeez, dad, you killed her _father._ For all I know, you were part of the same bunch that killed mom!"

"What do you know about that," he spat.

"Know," she hissed, stalking toward her father. "I was _in_ the damn car," she said, and swung a suddenly supersized fist at him.

For one of the very few times in his professional life, Target was taken completely by surprise as he went flying back into the bedroom, and through the outer wall before tumbling to a stop.

"Whoa, and I thought I had super strength," Ada joked as she got to her feet.

"Funny. You okay?"

"I'm getting better. Whatever he hit me with is already wearing off. Come on, we can't let him…..get away," she said, standing in the side of the yard outside the shattered wall, and seeing no sign of the Deathstroke wannabe.

"Great," Ada frowned, looking around. "Cap is going to kill me."

"Why?"

"Well, I kind of went behind his back…. Hey, how did you get here?"

"Uh, actually, Captain Silver-pants sent me as backup. Him and Green-bean knew all about your plan. Your tall buddy ratted you out."

"I should have known," she muttered. "Still, thanks. I thought he had me for a minute there."

"Yeah, no problem. I still owe you a few dozen," Pinky grinned, and hugged her. "Hey, I could be your sidekick now!"

Ada groaned.

"Still," she said, heading back to the house through the broken wall. "I don't get why they didn't transport the whole team instead of just you when Target showed."

"I….didn't transport down," Pinky grinned. "I was with you all along."

"What? No way. I would have noticed…."

"Wanna bet?"

"You impersonated someone else?"

"More like something else. I was your new bag."

"My new…."

They had reached the living room by then, and she looked around, and saw her transceiver on the floor, next to the purse, cash, and the other accessories. Scattered around as if just dumped there. Only there was no purse.

"You…..were the bag?"

"Green-bean thinks I might have someone called Plastic Man's powers. Maybe his DNA."

"Whoa. Mom used to talk about him. He was….crazy."

"Really? He sounds cool. I'll have to look him up. Online, I mean, because your buddies say he vanished just about the time the registration act was doing its thing. You want crazy, though? Hearing my dad's voice come out of that Halloween mask? That was insane!"

"Well, some of your story makes more sense, now, too. If your mom's company was behind tapping meta's genes and powers, she might have been trying to blow the whistle when they…."

"Yeah. And dad was part of it. Maybe he didn't realize he was at the time, but he had to know something. He had to have figured it out. And he did nothing. Ada," she said grimly now, her eyes glittering just a bit. "We have to take him down."

"No argument," she said. "Especially since I think I know his mentor."

"Yeah? Who? The incredibly _colorblind_ man?"

"Deathstroke," she said.

"Who," Pinky sputtered.

Captain Atom, and J'onn had no trouble recognizing the name.

**X**

"We're missing something," Adana tapped her fingers as she eyed Gordon doing research on the computer while they sat around the briefing room four days later.

"I don't know. It's slow, but we're getting more and more of the pieces to this puzzle," her teammate told her.

"Not fast enough."

"I agree with her," Pinky, who had taken to trailing after them added. "And you can bet Deathstroke, Jr. isn't sitting on his treacherous, colorblind butt, either."

Every member of the team stared at her.

They knew about the encounter by now. Spark was more than chagrinned at his supposedly unjammable transceiver being jammed. If Pinky had not been in place, they wouldn't have known what was going on, or been able to arrive in time to help. The shock factor of facing his own daughter likely helped run him off.

Or so Robbie guessed.

"My right cross didn't hurt," Pinky added without being insulted by his curt manner.

"His equipment," Ada said after a moment, looking back to Gordon. "No way that little equipment belt of his carried the power source to block the League's transporters, and your tech. He had to broadcasting. Spark, could you use the transceiver to duplicate that frequency, and backtrack it?"

"Smart," Pinky murmured.

"Very smart," Gordon declared, and turned in his chair to roll it toward a nearby console to the right of the computer log he had been working on. "Okay, the feedback loop I detected had a definite UHF band, so… Bingo. There. Using the NSA satellite, because they won't mind," he smirked over his shoulder, "We can tie in the loop, and find any recent activity that matches….."

"Got him," Adana said, walking over to stand behind Gordon as the GPS locked on the signal, and traced it to a location.

"Hey," Pinky said, coming up behind her. "That's my house! Are you telling me my dad has a lair in my own house? And I never noticed."

"It is probably hidden. Underground, or behind a hidden panel."

They all looked at Robert.

"It's where my uncle always hid his crap," he shrugged.

"So, your uncle was a bad guy?"

"Thought you knew that, goddess," he winked at her, not currently wearing his helmet, though he still had his armor on.

"And you decided to redeem the family name," the young teen smirked at him.

"Actually, my uncle left a counter-spell that keeps anyone from using the armor for evil any longer. Not that I wanted to be a bad guy. I mean, have you not noticed how much time those guys spend behind bars? Not my thing."

Todd just rolled his eyes.

"So," Gaia asked. "Do we go after this jerk, or do we run it past the Captain this time?"

"Much as I would like to just go jump on him," Adana admitted, "We'd better brief Captain Atom. Aside from this guy being at least as good as the original Slade, this is a civilian residence."

_"My_ civilian residence," Pinky sputtered. "So feel free to kick in the doors, and drag his sorry ass anywhere you want to take him," she told him.

"We see Cap, first," Gordon agreed.

"Then, let's go," Pinky told him. "I get the feeling that the longer we wait, the more chance 'dear old dad' will slip away."

"Suit up," Gordon told them all. "If Cap gives us the green light, we move at once."

**X**

"In position," Ember murmured, having jumped out of their new van a few moments ago as Robert drove past the back of the Steele residence, and let him, and Gaia out.

"So am I," the younger teen rasped a moment later.

"I'm waiting in the van, and monitoring the digital environment," Gordon reported. "Robert is backup. Plasti-Girl and Meta will go in the front, and see what they find. Everyone stay sharp. We have to contain, and catch this guy. No other options."

"Seriously? Plasti-Girl," Pinky complained even as she looked down at her still bland, blue jumpsuit that begged seriously intervention.

"Seems to fit, Stretch," Robbie grinned from the front seat as he pulled up just two doors away from the Steele house.

"You will be pay for that," Pinky vowed.

"This is not the time," Spark cut in. "Everyone, get ready. Meta. Go."

She nodded, and opened the side door.

Stepping out, she stood aside for Pinky, and they pair headed for the front door even as Gordon closed the door behind them.

"I don't know if it means anything, but that is dad's car," Pinky told Adana as they neared the drive, and she spotted the familiar sedan in the open garage.

"An old high school friend called them lead sleds," Ada murmured. "Big engines, lots of power. Didn't think any were still around."

"Consider who dad is supposed to be, he likely has it amped up way past specs."

"Goes without saying. Even I felt whatever it was he used to charge those sais of his, and lately, not much had been penetrating my skin."

"Really? So you're like….invulnerable now, too?"

"Focus," Gordon rasped in their ears.

"Playing the role," Ada shot back, and headed for the door. "Do we knock," she asked Pinky.

"At my own door? Yeah, right," she smirked, and pulled out a key.

Opening the door, she shoved it open, and yelled, "Hey, old man! I'm home. Wanna come out, and explain yourself now?"

"I'm in the kitchen," her father replied almost at once, surprising Adana.

She glanced at Pinky, who shrugged, and headed for the kitchen.

"Well, at least you're not wearing that dreadful fashion disaster any more," Pinky declared.

"And yet you are," Ian Steele told his daughter in a disapproving tone as she eyed the blue uniform.

"What can I say. Fighting bad guys, or bad dads, tends to shred my wardrobe. Ask Ada. She goes through blouses like tissue."

Ada glowered at that, but said nothing as the man sat at the table, chopping onions of all things.

"You are likely wondering what I intend?"

"We are," Ada said somberly.

"Duh," Pinky spat.

"I would like to ask you a few questions. What you tell me will directly impact my decision as to how I react. Darla…."

"Call me _Pinky,_ dad," she growled.

"Really," he murmured, eyeing her streaked hair. "Still the rebel? Never mind. You mentioned General Aiers when we last met," he said to Ada. "And, you, girl, suggested you were present when your mother died. I'll admit, I've long had my doubts about the day she died. So…..tell me a story. I suggest you both be convincing," the man's innocuous manner belying his cold tone.

"What I know came from Pinky," Ada told him bluntly, moving to ensure he couldn't slide out the back door, even as Pinky stood in the walkway to the front. "And the information we've accumulated since. Let her tell you what happened."

"All right? Try to be articulate, if you don't mind, my dear," he told Pinky. "This is important to all of us, girl," he growled.

"See what I have to live with," Pinky huffed. "Just because I don't read dictionaries, or something…."

"Pinky," Ada cut her off.

"Fine. Fine. I said I was there, because I was, dad. I was in the car the day Aiers, or whatever loopy name he uses, killed mom. She might have survived going over the guardrail, but she wouldn't have survived whatever he smacked her in the back of the head with, taking off most of her skull. Only he called himself Glory-Hound then."

"I see. Now, tell me why you were there? And, more importantly, _how_ did you survive," he demanded.

"We all have our secrets, dad," she smirked.

"I suppose it has something to do with how you hit me with the strength of _ten men_ earlier?"

"I did? Cool," she beamed, tossing her hair smugly.

"You said you were in the car. Were you exposed to something? Did your mother take something from the lab?"

"No. _I_ did."

He stood up now, looking grimmer than ever as she gave a quick, careless explanation of the vial, and how she was exposed to its contents.

"You saw nothing else?"

"I was kind of busy trying not to drown at the time," she huffed.

Ian looked directly at Adana now.

"I fought your mother, once, girl. Not that she knew it was me. She was good. You're better. Still, I'll tell you this now, out of respect for her. I will not be taken. I will, however, help you. It seems we both owe these men…..a debt. And Darla..."

"Pinky," the blonde growled.

_"She_ will tell you I always pay my debts."

"Go on," Adana said as Pinky just glowered at him.

"When my wife…. Your mother….. Died," he said, looking to Pinky. "I was working on another case, or they might have tried to use me. Not that they know who I am under the mask. No one does, until you two found me out. The first in... Well, the point is, I made a query into her death, unofficially, and was told she had stolen samples, and data from Janus. It's what they call themselves now, by the way. Politicians do like to be clever. Or pretend they are. Cadmus is just the public cover for snoops. I, at the time, could hardly make waves, though, considering the alleged evidence against her. Not that even I knew Aiers was really Glory-Hound at the time. If I had….."

"You would have questioned their whole load of bull….."

"Darla," he cut her off. "The point is, I had doubts, and always wondered, but could never find the entire truth. Now, I know more. It is blatantly obvious they lied to me. I take that….poorly. Trust, I've long felt, is a benchmark for a successful contract. They have lost mine."

He walked over to the stove, turned on the back burner, but instead of doing the expected, he then pulled up the burner he had apparently activated, and it folded up to reveal a hidden panel under the main surface. He pulled out three flash drives he scooped up, and held them out to Adana.

"Everything I have on Janus, it's backers, and senior officers. Complete with most of the current meta research, and the intended projects to date."

"Just like that," Adana asked.

"Just like that. With a singular proviso."

"That, I expected," she said.

"Naturally," Ian smiled. Very, very coldly. "_Aiers is mine_."

"That's not my call," Adana told him. "We're more concerned with stopping Janus whole, and cutting off this Project Failsafe."

"It's not a project. It's a person."

"A person," Pinky frowned.

"Six years ago, they found a certain…..cloned meta. Using his DNA as an indestructible base, they created a mental and physical shell they intended to use to fuse the programming, technology, and powers they wanted into the construct they made of it. It is intended to be the ultimate weapon. Supposedly, it could conceivably take down the Kryptonian, too."

"No…..way," Pinky rasped.

"Cadmus voiced concerns about a League that might go out of control. What's Janus' excuse?"

He glanced back at Adana now, and shrugged.

"The usual. They want power, and they want it all. Someone decided with more and more metas being born every day, _they_ were losing power. So they felt if they couldn't control them, they would shut them down. Permanently, if necessary. They felt if they were the supreme power in the nation, no one else, meta, or super power, could or would dare stand against them."

"So, it's just the usual megalomaniacs out for world domination," Pinky drawled. "And you helped them," she sneered at her father.

"It was a job. It paid the bills," he remarked blandly.

"I suddenly feel dirty," Pinky told Ada.

"Don't be so melodramatic. Now, I've told you what I can, and you have the data you need to find, and shut Janus down," Ian told her. "Recall my proviso," he told Adana.

"What makes you think we're letting you go anywhere," Pinky spat now. "You're coming with us, daddy-dearest. You can explain yourself….."

He turned, threw down a small sphere neither noted he was holding, and when the smoke cleared, he was gone.

"Spark, Ember, he bailed," Adana shouted into the comlink. "I so should have seen that coming," she groaned, heading for the front door as she pointed to the back, telling Pinky, "Check that way!"

A frustrating twenty minute search later found nothing.

Except an empty secret panel in the back of Ian's closet, and nothing else.

"This guy is good," Spark declared with reluctant admiration. "He let us follow his signal. And we played right into his hands."

"You can't find a new trail?"

"The frequency has gone dead," he told Ada. "I doubt he's still using the same channel," Spark told Adana as they climbed back into the van.

"Cap ain't gonna like this," Robbie said.

"No, but we did get this. If it's legit," Adana told them, holding out three flash drives. "We have Janus by the throat."

"And if what I heard was real, we have to find Aiers before Plasti-Girl's father _kills_ him," Spark added.

"We'd better get back to the Watchtower, and brief the rest of the League," Ember said as they all looked at Pinky.

"Would it sound bad if I said I hope the old man gets to that freak first?"

"Not to me," Gaia murmured to Pinky.

No one else commented.

_To Be Continued…._


	15. Chapter 15

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**15**

"Twice," Captain Atom said as he eyed the active teams now present, but focused on Adana. "You let him slip by you twice."

"At least they got close," Diana cut him off. "Until this week, we didn't even know this guy existed," Diana remarked.

"I'd like to know how I fought someone I didn't even know I was fighting," Amazon, back in costume for this one, frowned at her daughter's report.

"This guy is pretty slick." Spark spot up. "He's better than anyone I've ever tracked. There's a good chance he's been around a long time, and no one ever even realized it."

"Goes without saying," Pinky huffed. "I lived with the guy, and never had a clue. Jeez, you think you know someone," she said, eyeing Adana.

"While Janus is an issue, one I will be addressing with the President," Diana cut in. "Failsafe is obviously something that cannot be allowed to succeed. It must be shut down before they can activate it."

"Unfortunately, that is the one piece of information we don't have a location for here," J'onn remarked. "What we do have is five, heavily guarded locations similar to the Saskatchewan site around the world. While we couldn't pinpoint them with our satellites, we could confirm the same electronic void existed at the locations indicated."

"So, five teams," Captain Atom nodded. "I'll lead Alpha. Diana, you take Target Beta. Amazon will be leading Delta Squad. I've called in Dragon, and Feral to lead the other two teams."

"Which one do we get," Adana asked.

"You're backup to any site that requires it," Captain Atom told her. "So stay here, and stay ready."

"We're backup," Robert sputtered. "But we cracked this whole case. Without us, you wouldn't even have this case!"

"What he said," Pinky muttered.

"I think even you children have to know that…."

"Did you call us…"

"Oh, he did not," Gaia cut Todd off.

"You've been preaching responsibility to me the day I showed up," Adana stepped forward. "You told me I had an obligation to learn to do my best, and then do it," she said somberly. "Now, when we're about to finally put this mess in order, you want us to sit on our butts because you think we can't handle it? Jeez, you are one…"

"Ada," Diana cut her off.

"Hypocritical….."

"Ada," Amanda snapped.

"Fine," she spat. "But someone better remember that Barb Wilson's father is still down there somewhere, and so far as we know, he's another innocent dupe. So you better find him, because it won't be _me_ that tells her she lost her dad while you charged in blowing things up!"

"We know our duty," Captain Atom retorted. "Likely better than you, young lady."

Ada's left eye twitched.

"Don't hit him," Todd tried to joke.

"Team leaders, get ready to move. Backup teams, you're assignments are posted on the bridge. I suggest your leaders familiarize yourself with where you might be called, if necessary. The rest of you, stand down," Captain Atom growled at Ada.

Ada just glared.

"You have a problem with taking orders," Captain Atom pointedly faced her, staring into her set visage.

"Only from you," she spat, and turned, and stalked out of the conference room.

"Yo, Sparky. I know my girl," Pinky whispered as the rest of the members left to break up into teams. "I predict she's about to do something entirely unauthorized, and crazy."

"I don't know her that well, but my girl's intuition says Meta is majorly pissed off, and looking for payback," Gaia agreed.

"For someone that didn't want to be a hero, she sure is trying hard," Robbie snorted.

"Don't you get it, Metal-head," Pinky quipped. "She promised to bring Barbie's dad back. Safe, and alive. Now, how would you feel if you made that kind of promise, and got benched before you could pull it off?"

"I'd be tweaked," Robbie nodded.

"Let's go see what she's planning," Spark nodded at his team.

"I was going anyway," Pinky drawled. "I just tipping you guys off, in case you're not all major suck-ups that do whatever you're told."

"Us," Robbie laughed. "They don't call us Gamma for nothing. We're like….the _loser_ team, Plasti…."

"Call me Pinky, or shut up," she growled.

"Right. Pinky," Robbie nodded. "Anyway, in our own ways, we've all screwed up before, and after we got drafted, and let me tell you, Cap doesn't constantly hang around because he likes us. He's still waiting for our next screw-up."

"Really? Cool," Pinky grinned. "Maybe you guys are okay after all. Now, let's go save my best friend from herself."

They found her in the hangar, about to take a mini-van/jet down rather than try managing the teleport pad sure to be busy just then.

"Going somewhere."

"Back to the start."

"Huh," Robbie frowned.

"Spark, you reviewed the data. Did you see anything that suggested that Failsafe was located anywhere in those five sites?"

"No," he frowned. "From the materials and research indicated, it seemed they were all fall-back locations."

"Right. I started thinking about that. Where would you put the real Janus if you wanted someone to overlook it?"

Spark eyed her.

"You think it's still in Canada?"

"We leveled the dome. But only the ground level. What's to say something else wasn't under it? The first Cadmus was really fond of underground hangars, and hidden labs. Now, so far as I've heard, no one bothered to check _under_ the ruin. And I'm not going to sit up here on my hands if the real bad guys are getting away."

"What else," Pinky asked. "Because I'm guessing you figured something else, too."

"Like you say, duh. You father handed us those five sites on a platter. Which meant he didn't expect us to find anything. Not Aiers. Likely not Janus, or Failsafe. Why not? Because he knew where they were, and that's where he's going."

"To Canada," they all said as one.

"You know, technically, we should inform the others."

"We're backup," Ada told Todd. "Do you want to go up there and tell the silver-plated control freak that his plan is flawed, and his less than favorite Amazon just figured out the hole in it?"

"He couldn't like that," Gaia said quietly.

"He wouldn't," Robbie agreed cheerfully. "He'd tell us to butt out, and stay put."

"He would," Gaia agreed.

"Well, as long as we're backup," Spark said after everyone looked his way. "We might as well go help ensure no one….left anything behind at the initial contact site. We won't be disobeying orders doing that. We're just going to ensure everything is copasetic, and do some...cleanup while waiting for a call, if it comes."

"Now, that's slick," Pinky grinned.

"Todd, Robbie, fuel up, and arm her to the teeth. I'll go up to the bridge and check on our official assignment, and then give them our…..unofficial itinerary. Guys, if Meta is right, gear up, and get ready. If that ground level was tough, you can bet the lower floors, if they are there, are going to be downright nasty."

"We'll have one advantage going in," Ada reminded him.

"Yeah," Spark frowned.

"Pinky's dad is probably _already_ there."

Spark frowned, then nodded.

"Everyone….hustle," he said, and took off for the bridge.

**X**

"Just like the first dome Gamma reported," one of Captain Atom's teammates remarked as they materialized away from the distortion field in the middle of the Sahara, and eyed the near-distant structure.

"Yes."

"Something wrong, Captain?"

"Gamma. They're up to something," he told the young, but proven hero that used the name 'Catch,' simply because he could find, and analyze any ploy before you could finish thinking about it. He was also a very good martial artist.

"Naturally," the mental gymnast grinned. "They're going after Damian Steele, AKA Ian Steele, AKA Target."

"Who is supposedly hunting Aiers just now?"

"Yes. I thought about that since the briefing. It now occurs to me that he's likely back at the _original_ dome site."

"But it was destroyed," the silver-plated hero frowned.

"The surface structure was," he agreed.

Captain Atom frowned.

"No one ever ascertained if there was anything under the rubble. Damn, we've gotten sloppy!"

"I say, trust them, and take care of our own assignment. I think they'll manage."

"Gamma," the man of energy sputtered.

"I won't deny they have a less than stellar record, Captain. But haven't you noticed how well they've meshed since Meta has joined. She has not only brought them closer together, but they are starting to operate as a rather effective group, too."

"Captain Atom," Psion appeared. "I'm getting multiple readings from the dome."

"It will be heavily guarded…."

"Meta readings," the powerful psychic told him. "And they are in pain."

Captain Atom took a single look around him, eyed the ten members of his active squad, and pointed to each flank.

"Shut them down," he growled, and launched himself into the air, fists blazing with cosmic energy. Gamma, he realized, would have to fend for themselves, whatever they found.

**X**

"Hey, this is where I fell the first time," Robbie grinned as they passed the shallow crater.

"Focus," Spark told him. "We go in fast, and we go in hard. Anyone gets in the way, shut them down, and keep going. We have three primary objectives. Mr. Wilson. General Aiers. And, Failsafe. _Target_ is secondary. First one to find the civilian, get him out, and keep going."

"And if we find the general," Pinky asked.

"Try to keep him alive long enough to arrest," Robbie told her with a crooked grin. "I take it I get point?"

"Not this time. Gaia, cover our approach. Meta, find a way down. I know it's there, I can feel the electronics under our feet now that all their previous interference is gone."

"Which means that Steele is likely already here, too," Ada commented, and moved forward even as Gaia's thin slender hands rose, and mist seemed to flow from around the willowy black teen as the forest grew murky.

"Radio silence as of now. Communicate only if you reach an objective, and can safely manage it."

"Or need help," Ada added. "Don't play hero, guys. If they've held metas this long, then they likely know how to hurt you. If you get separated, and need help, yell."

"That goes for you, too," Ada was told by Spark. "Remember, Steele almost caught you once before, so we don't want to risk losing you, either."

"I'll be with her," Pinky told them. "No way am I leaving my best girlfriend to do this alone."

"She's not alone," Robbie huffed.

Pinky just stared at him.

"All right," Gaia cut in. "I have the whole area blanketed with fog. If they have cameras, or sentries, they're useless now."

"All right, then. Meta. Find a door."

"Right," the brunette said, and moved forward, hovering slightly off the ground as she used her other senses to move directly toward the still smoldering pile of rubble that had been a military post of some kind earlier.

"Show off," Pinky grumbled, and loped after her.

"Spark," Ember hissed. "What if they already activated Failsafe?"

"Then we shut it down," Gaia answered for him.

Spark nodded.

"Whatever it is, we can't let it get out. We can't let them win. If it is here, Ember, we can't let it leave."

Ember nodded.

"You can count on me," he nodded.

"I know I can, buddy. Let's go. Before the girls leave us behind."

**X**

Diana turned to take a report from her second, and frowned. Captain Atom, and Dragon had cleared out their sites. Lots of hostage metas, inactive labs, and little else. Unfortunately, her site had proven to be much the same.

When she heard Catch's suspicion that Gamma had likely found, and gone after the real Janus, she was ready to follow.

Only they had to sit on their captives, and those they had freed who still needed help. Like it, or not, Adana was on her own for now.

"Has Amazon checked in? Or Feral?"

"Not yet," Sync replied, the young woman able to copy and use any power used against her. "But you know how they both can be when they get going. They may still be going through their sites," she told Diana who had taken most of the resistance out almost single-handedly.

It didn't hurt that most of the guards had taken one look at the legendary Wonder Woman, and ran.

"True. Keep me informed. And try to get someone to check in on Gamma's progress."

"I'll call the Martian," Sync nodded, knowing he was their best source so long as no tech was blocking his telepathy.

"Do it," Diana agreed. "Meanwhile, try to get more responders out here. Some of these captives are going to need serious care just to survive," she said grimly.

Unlike Cadmus, it didn't seem Janus was too concerned with whether their lab rats survived, or not. It sickened her to see the condition some of them were in, but she couldn't help but think of her granddaughter being in their hands, too, since she had been one of their targets from the start.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Sync told her. "She has a good team with her."

Diana eyed the woman.

Unlike most, Sync started out as a police officer, and could handle herself better than some of their more experienced members. Gamma, however, had more than its share of issues.

The grandstanding Dreadnaught.

The virtually murderous Gaia.

Ember had a reputation for freezing, or running away when things got serious.

Spark was sometimes too cautious at times to even consider as a warrior.

Adana had not even wanted to be here, and yet now she was joining a less than reputable team, dragging a potentially unstable girl along with her who might be her own father's pawn. It was not an ideal situation for anyone.

She certainly didn't like the idea of her granddaughter being in it. Whatever her powers, she was still inexperienced, and more likely to bull her way through things, than not. Which, she knew well enough, was not always a good way for a warrior to act.

**X**

"Found it," Meta said, straining as she pulled at the warped, steel panel that hid the exit Aiers had used in the command center just before the place blew. "And like I guessed, it leads down," she told her teammates as she tossed the panel aside, and they ripped open the warped wall panel that hid the escape hatch.

"We go in twos," Spark told them. "Two minutes apart. We don't want to bunch up, in case they're down there waiting."

"Agreed," Gaia nodded. "I'll go first, with Dreadnaught."

"Pinky and I will go next," Meta said, nodding at the younger girl, and accepting her decision.

"Are you sure….?"

"C'mon, Sparky," Pinky snorted. "Who's got the chops on this team. From what I've seen, my girl, and tin can there are about the heaviest hitters you have. Who better to thin out the herd that might be waiting? Then, while we take care of the baddies, you and the matchstick can sneak in behind us, and find Barbie's old man. Or whatever."

"That does make sense," Spark sighed. "All right. Go."

Gaia was already going.

"Gaia," he called out as she stepped into the passage. "No killing."

Gaia glanced back, but said nothing. Robbie just walked after her, winked over his shoulder, and drawled, "I'll keep her in line, boss. Don't worry, Cap won't have any complaints. You know, other than the whole disobeying orders, and sneaking off behind his back again."

Spark sighed, shaking his head again.

"Why did I sign up for this?"

"Because, as I recall, it was this, or juvie, oh, master hacker of all things digital," Todd reminded him after Meta and Pinky followed the first two into the dark passage.

"Let's forget that one. Will you," he asked his friend, and teammate.

"Hey, I'm still trying to live down choking on that mission with Feral. Trust me, _no one_ has let me live that one down."

"I'd have choked, too. _Parasite_? He's major league, buddy. I'd have run as fast as I could, too."

"Tell it to Captain Atom. I can see his opinion of me every time he looks my way."

"He's not fond of any of us, Ember. Now, let's forget the past, and go show them we can carry our own weight."

"Right. You can trust me, Spark. I won't bail."

"I know you won't," Spark nodded.

Then led the way into the darkness, his eyes glowing white as he sought out an electronic trail he could exploit, or follow.

"Anything," Ember asked as he realized the passage split in a tee, and someone had carved an arrow right into the steel wall pointed left. He could guess. Since the other wall had a fist pounded into the right side.

Which let the straight corridor ahead for them.

"Here we go, buddy," he told Ember, and kept going straight.

_To Be Continued….._


	16. Chapter 16

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**16**

"Why did you stop," Dreadnaught asked, and looked over the slender girl's shoulder.

"Intersection. Which way, smart guy," Gaia asked, gesturing to the dark corridors.

"Experience has taught me that the right side is the one where all the trouble waits. Let's go that way."

She looked back.

"I don't see the others yet. How do we let them know…..?"

He banged a hard fist into the wall on the right side.

"They'll get the message," he said as a faint vibration sounded through the dimly lit corridor, most of the emergency lighting blinking as if power were being interrupted.

Gaia shrugged, and moved on with him.

A few moments later, Ada and Pinky stopped at the same intersection, and looked around.

"I thought I heard someone punch a wall," she pointed out. "Dreadnaught must have gone right. So, that leaves straight ahead, or left?"

"Left. In every movie I've ever seen, the evil lair _always_ had the labs to the left."

Ada considered that claim.

"Good as any reason. I'll let Spark know where we went," she said, and pressed a nail into the wall, and scratched an arrow.

"Whoa. Remind me never to let you scratch my back," the blonde exclaimed.

"I've improved my control lately. I wouldn't hurt you, Pinky," she assured her.

"Good to know. In case I do need my back scratched," she grinned.

"I'm surprised we haven't run into…..someone already," she said as they kept moving down the apparently empty corridor.

"Kind of makes it suspicious, don't it," the blonde nodded her agreement.

"Makes me think they're either careless, or diverted."

"Dad?"

"Maybe. Or maybe they realize someone is hitting all their bases, and decided to push up their agenda."

"Which means everyone may already be in the evil labs, waiting on us," she asked.

"Could be."

"And if dad beat us here?"

"Get ready for trouble. I get the feeling your dad isn't the type to take prisoners."

"Covert international assassin? Goes without saying," Pinky murmured. "Gotta say, I'm surprised you aren't more tweaked once you realized he likely killed your father."

Adana glanced back at her, her shadowed face grim. "I'm more interested in _who_ gave him the order," she said in a tone Pinky understood completely.

Meanwhile, they figured out the likely reason for missing guards when they found the first bodies.

Two sentries slumped against the wall, small daggers still embedded in their throats from behind.

"Yeah, dad's here," Pinky murmured, looking at the third body across the corridor where it split again. "I think he went that way," she said, spotting a fourth body laying prone in the middle of the hall.

"Yeah," Adana agreed, and looked around. "We stick together."

"I could check that way, and come right back?"

"Splitting up never works. To quote your films, it's a good way to get into trouble."

"True. True. Look what happened to Dale in _Scream X_."

Adana rolled her eyes.

"We follow the bodies. It stands to reason Steele knows where he's going."

"Since he's likely been here before," Pinky said, sounding a bit less nonchalant, and a lot more angry.

"Stay calm, and stay focused, Pinky," Ada told her. "We have a mission. We can't lose sight of that."

"I know. I know. Hey, what's that," she asked, and pointed into a room filled with frosted tubes. Inside, over half a dozen men and women in white coats lay slumped around the chamber. All of them obviously dead.

"Looks like your father's been here, too," Ada murmured, and walked over to stare up at one of the tubes. "No…..way."

"What is it," Pinky asked.

"Pinky," she said, wiping a hand over the surface of the tube, trying to clear some of the frosted condensation. "I think this is _Superboy!_ He vanished over ten years ago!"

"Really? The real deal? Girl, we have so got to get him out of there," Pinky told her, staring up at the frozen form.

"Definitely," Ada agreed, and looked around. She didn't recognize all the faces in the twenty tubes around her, but she did spot another one. "Pinky….."

"Is that….?"

"Plastic Man," she said, staring up at a frozen figure elongated, with oversized fists flash-frozen in the act of trying to break free. "Probably the source of your powers. Just like J'onn thought."

"He looks pissed," she said, staring at the unnaturally fluid face caught in the midst of stretching in odd directions with his fists raised.

"Just the kind of guy we want when we face whatever is still ahead. See if you can find some kind of shutoff switch, or something?"

Pinky stared around, walked over to a computer console, and picked up a chair.

"Found it," she said, and slammed the heavy, metal frame into the nearest computer. Then the next. And the next.

The panels all started sparking, smoking and smoldering as something behind the walls whined, and the tubes began to vent super-cooled gases.

"Better not let that touch you," Adana warned as the bluish mist chilled even her flesh, and made her uniform unexpectedly brittle.

"Moving on," Pinky quipped, and flung the chair at the last computer.

The chair stuck in the sparking, shorting panel even as they heard a faint crack.

Then glass exploded as a teenage form in a black tee jumped out to land in a fighting crouch as he looked around in confusion.

"What the hell," he growled. "Who are you? Where's that freak _Aiers?"_

"Right about now? Running for his life," Pinky quipped. "We thought we'd help chase him."

"Who are you," Connor demanded again, looking around, and looking grim as the others in the tubes didn't show his speed, or resilience in coming out of their long hibernation.

"Long story short," Ada told him. "I'm Meta. That's Plasti-Girl. We're with the League Auxiliary. These guys are trying to create a meta super weapon, and we're here to stop them. You in?"

Superboy frowned, then eyed the others, just starting to slump in their tubes as they slowly came back to life.

"Right. Are the Titans here? Have you met Robin? Did he send….?"

"Connor," Ada cut him off. "It's been over ten years since they grabbed you. Robin… That is, Nightwing retired, and the Titans faded. I doubt you'd even recognize the League these days."

"Meagan," he asked gruffly. "Miss Martian?"

"I don't know. You'd have to ask J'onn."

"So, he's still around," the Kryptonian clone murmured, sounding less than pleased.

"So's my grandmother. Wonder Woman," she told him. "Now, are you functional?"

He glowered at her as Pinky just stared at him with a wide smile.

"Plasti-Girl, huh? You're O'Brian's kid? I didn't even know he was…."

"God, no! My dad's the _assassin_ trying to kill Aiers about now. Probably the guy who caught you, knowing him," the blonde smirked. "Nice look, by the way. Jeans, and a tee. Simple. Understated. Works on you, boy. Works…._fine_," she leered.

Connor turned to eye Ada.

"You sure she's not O'Brian's?"

"After a fashion. She was exposed to a meta-serum with his DNA."

Even as he opened his mouth to ask something more, the entire complex rumbled ominously.

"And _that's_ our clue to run," Pinky drawled.

"Conner, my team is already on point. Leave this to us, and get these people out of here. There's an exit right at the hall outside, and it goes straight up to the surface if you follow the corridor. You may be fast enough to get them all out before something else happens. Go."

"Since when did little girls start running the League….?"

_"Go,"_ Meta shouted, and turned to leave the room.

"I'd listen. Last guy that annoyed her? She punched through two walls. With one finger," Pinky winked, and ran after Meta.

"One….finger," Connor frowned.

Then the walls reverberated again.

"Okay, I know that tune," he grumbled, and while he wanted some payback of his own, nineteen innocent lives were now in his hands. He had seen what befell leaving innocents behind in places like this before now. He jerked a tube open, and pulled out the young woman within, and lay her down. In short order, he had them all out, all on the floor, and then scooped up two of them, and ran for the exit Meta had outlined.

Ten minutes later, he was back inside, having left all nineteen men and women outside in the forest, well away from the surprisingly battered structure that must have set on top the underground complex until a short time ago.

Knowing the way he had come, he turned, and continued in the opposite direction, and noted a lot of dead bodies around him. He rushed into a larger, better lit room just in time to see Meta fly across the room, smashing face-first into the wall hard enough to bury her in the steel, and cursing fluently as she pushed to free herself.

He grabbed an arm, and pulled.

"What hit….you," he asked, and turned even as she dropped to the floor to see an seven foot behemoth in a dark green jumpsuit that looked more armor than cloth. One with powerful musculature, and no more face than burning slits for eyes.

"Let me guess, Doomsday on steroids," Connor swore as he stared at the thing hammering on Plasti-Girl, who kept trying to trip him with her bizarrely fluid limbs while a younger man in golden armor pounded ineffectually on the creature as it stomped toward an exit on the far side of the chamber.

"Worse," a man laying nearby in a strikingly familiar blue and gold costume rasped. _"Failsafe_ is a techno-organic construct without a true mind. Just a program. One genetically infused with the best, and strongest powers of every meta on the planet. I tried to stop Aiers…."

The man rasped again, cringing as Connor saw his bloody mask half torn from his face. His chest visibly badly crushed.

"He….activated it early. Unfortunately, it turns out, Failsafe has its own logic driving him. Somehow, he decided the only way to control the meta population, is _kill_ them all."

"But every man, woman, and child on the planet is a potential carrier of that gene," Superboy gasped.

"Where's Aiers now? Can he shut it down," Meta asked the man, knowing even Pinky's dad, slime that he was, deserved better than this.

"Aiers….is dead. First….victim of his own monster. There's irony," he rasped as Pinky raced over just then, and eyed him.

"Meta, we can't stop it. Tell me you have a plan, girl, because if it gets out…..?"

"Sweetie, run. You can't stop this thing," Target told his daughter. "And….I can't….protect you," he choked out weakly.

"Don't worry, dad," she said, eyeing him uneasily. "We'll get you out of here."

"Too late. You have to…warn everyone. Town….ten miles southeast of here. If it hits there….they all die. I tried…. Forgot my own….first rule."

"What rule," Pinky rasped, looking as if she were trying not to cry as the man began to cough, and blood spattered from his lips.

"Always….leave yourself….an escape plan. Didn't think….they would activate…." He looked up at Meta. "You scared them. You're….as strong _as….him._ It scared them. But…..not sure if even you can….."

Ian went limp, and sagged against the wall, staring blankly.

"Dad," Pinky rasped, grasping his shoulders, and shaking him.

"Pinky…..We have to go," Meta told her. "We still have a job….."

Somewhere down that exit, they heard a hellish scream, and burst of superheated flame boiled out of the corridor beyond.

"Behind me," Connor and Ada both shouted as they jumped up, and covered Pinky.

He stared at her, but said nothing as Ada raised her hands, and crossed her wrists, somehow holding back the surge of raw flame.

"We have to go now," Ada told her. "I'll go after the others, you get to the surface, and call J'onn. Tell them what's happening, and tell them to get all the help they can now!"

Then she was flying away faster than Connor expected.

He looked down at the blonde, unshed tears in her eyes, and asked, "You going to be okay?"

She stared up at him, then back down at her father.

"I'll have to be. Where are the others?"

"Outside. In the…..woods," he rasped. "That thing will walk right over them," he swore, and vanished in a blur of speed, leaving her behind.

Pinky stared down at her dad.

"I should so hate you," she rasped, and raised a small fist. "You….moron," she said. Then she jumped up, and ran after the others as she fumbled with the transceiver, hoping she wasn't too deep to get a signal to the Martian.

**X**

"Didn't we just leave you," Ember and Spark asked as they met Dreadnaught and Gaia.

"Deja vu," Robbie smiled from under his helmet. "Looks like all roads lead to….there," he pointed, and heard shouting.

"Let's go," Spark said. "I think we've found what we're looking for down here," he said a moment later as they burst into a huge lab chamber where a massive figure in some kind of green armor stood in the middle of a huge tank of some kind of fluid.

Wires and tubes were all over the slate-gray humanoid, and it had no face beyond a blank oval with two empty slots where eyes should be.

The general turned from the battered man in a Deathstroke knockoff costume, and glowered at the four heroes.

"It seems I have no choice. Even if I have yet to incorporate Winter's DNA, it should still be strong enough to ensure that you four will cease to interfere with our plans now," he said, and slammed a palm down on a panel.

"No," Target shouted, and rushed to push his aside.

"Too late, traitor. Our Failsafe will contain, and control you meddlesome metas once, and for all. The future belongs to _mankind!_ Not you genetic freaks!"

"Bet Neanderthals thought the same thing. Look what happened to them," Dreadnaught quipped even as an electric surge when through the tank, and the empty slits in the faceless oval flared with blue flame.

"Uh-oh," Gaia rasped.

"Uh-oh, is right," Spark hissed. "I don't what the system is working here, but I can't get into it. I can't shut it down."

"We do learn our lessons each time, boy," the general spat at him. "You, and your kind have met your match," he laughed as the massive figure just put it's feet down, then looked around the chamber. Right before simply walking right through the thick plexiglass that contained it.

"Failsafe, Code Beta. Contain these four…. Five deviants," Aiers spat. "Obey!"

The behemoth looked down at him.

"System error," the creature droned from its throat in an electronic rasp, no lips to give it voice. "Humans are meta. Metas are human. To properly contain metas implies the extinction of the species."

"What," Ember and Spark both gasped.

"Parameters acceptable. Extinguishment of meta population begins," the giant droned, and reached out to backhand Target across the room, even as it lifted Aiers by his throat, snapping his neck with the barest shake of its big hand.

"Dreadnaught, hit him hard. Ember, try superheating his joints, and slowing him down. Gaia," Spark turned to her. "Do whatever you can," he said grimly. "We can't let this thing get out."

"Run," the battered man across the room shouted. "You kids can't stop that thing," he said, pulling out two small grenades he threw right at the giant.

Even as Dreadnaught slammed into him from behind at a full charge.

The explosions rocked the base around them, and systems began to go crazy, but the giant in green armor just turned, eyed Target, and threw an entire computer console at him with one hand while ignoring Dreadnaught's impacts to his back.

The assassin barely rolled out of the way even as Ember unleashed a torrent of flame at the creature's face, realizing his joints were too well armored for him to penetrated anyway.

"Tell me this guy has a computer brain you can zap," Ember yelled, barely ducking a piece of machinery tossed his way.

"Spark," Gaia hissed. "I can't touch this guy. It's like he's…..beyond even my reach. I can't hit him with anything, because he's too…..too….."

"Try anything," Spark shouted, even as Meta flew into the room, and slammed into the creature with both fists.

For the first time, the thing rocked back, almost knocked backward over teen feet, and Dreadnaught cheered even as Pinky appeared, and try to wrap up his feet by stretching into a long, winding hobble, hoping to trip him so they could keep him down.

"Hit him again," Dreadnaught shouted, and rammed into the thing from the side even as Meta flashed forward, making their ears ring with the force of her blow that made the featureless head turn when she unleashed a powerful right.

Just before the more massive fist backhanded her, flinging her across the room to drive her into the wall with enough force to dent it, and almost mount herself inside the steel.

Spark stared as a lean, young teen in a black tee with a distinctive shield appeared to help her, but he turned to eye the problem directly.

"We have to get him outside where Gaia can turn lose her elemental mojo," he decided. "There's a way out there," he shouted at Robert as Dreadnaught continued to pound at the thing even as Pinky went to help Meta, too, but seemed to be distracted by something else.

"I got him," Ember said, and launched another fireball into the creature's face. "C'mon, ugly! This way. Catch me if you can," he said as he ran for the panel Spark opened when he detected the circuits around him.

"Go," Spark shouted at Gaia and Dreadnaught as the thing lumbered after the other teen, giving an electronic growl of rage. "As soon as you can, hit him with all you can," he told Gaia. "Don't worry about finesse, just _slam_ him!"

"On it," the girl nodded, and ran down the corridor as Spark turned electrical, and sought some other way to find a means of stopping the thing. Just in case.

It was fortunate he was in his electrical form, because even as he was racing after his teammates, sure that Meta would catch up once she caught her breath, the corridor ahead erupted with a boiling wall of flame as a shrill scream of pain reached his ears.

"Todd," he gasped, and rushed forward just in time to see the giant stomping off toward the surface, no sign of Robbie or Gaia around him.

He did see Ember. Todd lay on the ground, his legs badly mangled, and his left arm at an unnatural angle. He was also burned over most of his body, his uniform barely rags that looked scorched, and blown out across his entire frame.

"Ember! Todd, what happened," he asked as he ran up to him, taking human form again as he knelt beside him.

The boy, in obvious pain, looking up, and gave a rueful smile.

"Had to…..get Gaia time to slip….past. Get outside….first," he rasped. "I….didn't run," the badly burned Ember rasped, laying in Spark's arms as Meta ran up to join them just then.

"Todd!"

"Ada…. This thing…. You can't….touch it. He's….invulnerable. Worse than…."

"He's gone," Spark told her, his eyes sizzling as tears flowed from them. "Ada, this thing. It's got some kind of….bio-electric field. You can't _touch_ him. Energy attacks…can't penetrate it. We just can't touch him. It's like…."

"It's Kryptonian," Ada told him. "The bio-electric field is a semblance of a Kryptonian aura. Get him out of here," she said, straightening up as she nodded at Ember. "We're not leaving him down here."

Spark looked up as Connor walked up behind them.

"Are you supposed to be….?"

"Superboy," Connor growled. "And I have an axe to grind. Let's go, Meta. Your friends are flushing that beast right toward where I left those other people."

"Oh, no," she groaned.

"Go," Spark told her.

Ada vanished in a blur of speed.

The apparent Superboy right behind her.

"Good luck," he told them as he carefully lifted his teammate, and friend. "You're going to need it."

_To Be Continued…_


	17. Chapter 17

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**17**

"Diana, this is J'onn," the Martian's voice cut into her mind, rather than using her comlink. "I just received a distress call from Plasti-Girl."

"What's going on?"

He told her.

"My….God. J'onn, if that thing hits population?"

"Captain Atom is already on his way. As is Dragon. The others are still tied up with securing their sites. Are you free….."

"Teleport me there, _now,"_ the Amazon warrior demanded.

"Give me a moment to lock onto you. You should know, they found several of our missing members there. Including Superboy."

"Is Kal back from space yet," she demanded, waiting impatiently for the transport.

"No. Nor is he close enough for me to contact him. We're on our own for now."

"Typical," the Amazon growled. "Just get me to my granddaughter!"

A moment later, she vanished in a burst of translucent light even as the others stared.

**X**

"Get those people out of here," Meta shouted at Dreadnaught as they battled the thing with all they had, but still barely held him back as the locals tried to evacuate the small town of several thousand.

"Did your friend get through to the League," Superboy demanded, sitting up after being knocked flat. Not for the first time.

He wasn't up to full power yet after being deprived of the sun for so long, and they both knew it. It didn't stop him from throwing himself back at the creature again right beside her.

"If Pinky said she got through, she got through," said said, barely ducking another blow from the seven foot Failsafe that was walking through them almost as if they weren't there. Even Dreadnaught, mystically empowered as he was, was no match for him.

Something about the creature's energy field kept him from truly harming him no matter how hard he hit. Only Ada and Connor's punches slowed it down at all. That was all they had to delay it to give the others time as they slowed it down long enough, hopefully long enough to get the town evacuated.

"I warned Superman about letting the government control metas," Connor swore as he slammed joined fists into the monster's nape. "Time….and time…..and time again," he growled, hammering the thing hard with barely any discernible effect. "He _just….doesn't…..listen,"_ he swore, and barely ducked being sucker punched when the creature abruptly turned to swat at him.

"Meta," Gaia shouted, running toward her just then. "Get everyone back, I'm going to try to bury that freak! Let's see him move with fifty tons of rock on his head," she shouted, and pointed not at the stomping creature moving toward her, but the ground before her.

Connor, and Adana both flew up, and away, and ensured no one was close as the ground began to rumble, and crack open as if someone had simply pulled a long zipper back under the creature's feet.

"Deeper," the straining teen told herself as Meta flew down near her, ready in case the creature avoided the trap.

He didn't.

The ground split right under his feet, and he gave a droning howl as he tumbled into the stygian abyss that had grown right under him in the middle of the small town's main road. Then Gaia slapped her hands together, and the earth rumbled again as the crack slammed together with the force of a dozen freight trains.

"Good job," Connor grinned, flying down.

Gaia still looked as if she were straining.

"It wont….hold. You have to finish getting those people….away," she told them.

"How can you be so….?"

The ground cracked audibly again. Rumbling came from deeper down, and it seemed to be moving.

"I can _feel_ the earth around him. It won't hold," the girl cried, and almost dropped to her knees, bathed in sweat from the effort of whatever she was doing.

"Hold him as long as you can," Ada told her. "Have you seen Spark?"

"He went back to recheck whatever was left of the computers," Dreadnaught came over to nod at her. "He's hoping to find a failsafe for Failsafe. Don't worry. The last trucks are away, and the locals are sending out warnings for everyone in the area to bail now."

"Good," she nodded, even as a pale fist wreath in that green armor split the earth, and rose before them. "Pinky?"

"She left with them. She knew she couldn't help, but she might be able to help...shield them if anything else shows."

"No good," Gaia rasped, sagging. "I'm spent. I can't…."

"Robbie, get her out of here," Ada shouted at him without looking back as she flew up, and then slammed down with both fists on the head of the emerging monster.

Both of them tumbled back into the still open pit below, and the ground shuddered violently at whatever was happening as Robert just stared at the cracked highway before him.

"Are you deaf," Connor shouted at him. "Get your friend clear while you can. _Go,"_ he shouted, and hovered just off the ground with fists curled, ready to move himself.

"I'll get her to the caravan, and be back as fast as I can," he told the apparent Superboy.

The grim-faced hero didn't even acknowledge him as Meta came flying up out of the partially sealed chasm, and arched past him toward the nearby town. He flew fast, and caught her before she could slam into the brick façade of a nearly city hall.

"Thanks. He sucker-punched me. That guy plays dirty," she spat.

"Meta," a familiar voice shouted as a flash of energy burst over her head, and she looked up to see Captain Atom flying toward her. "Report."

"This guy is stronger than anyone I've ever seen, and just about as tough," Superboy told him. "Whatever he is, he's out to kill _everyone_ on the planet, too."

Captain Atom glowered at her, and spat, "You were supposed to stop his activation before he could…."

"Recriminations later," Meta cut him off, pointing as the seven foot creature rose out of the shattered asphalt, and stood looking right at them.

"What is…..?"

"Cap, meet Failsafe," Ada told him.

"Metas detected. Aliens detected. Protocol. Terminate all life forms."

"Need I say more," she asked, and flew at him even harder than before, fists first.

She punched faster, and faster, and added more power, but while she drove the creature back, he was hitting back all the while, and finally landed a punch that sent her flying back to smash through three buildings before she stopped.

All in the blink of an eye.

"I'm going to try to use my full energy spectrum," Captain Atom told Connor, not bothering to ask where he had been. Not when it was so evident now. "Stand back."

He flew down, hovering in the path of the creature than now righted itself, and moved toward him.

As Captain began to glow brighter and brighter, his hands all but vanishing as he unleashed the powerful quantum energies that had somehow allowed him to survive in the most unlikely of all mishaps. He focused, and poured all of that energy into the beast's face, and forced himself to all but spend every erg he had left in reserve.

The creature all but radiated with the heat, and light, and then began to raise its hands anew.

And returned all of that energy, shredding Captain Atom's containment suit like tissue as the man that yet remained screamed, and fled the area before he exploded. High overhead, the rupture failed, and the sky was lit by a brighter blue as the concussive wave drove even Failsafe to his knees for a moment.

Meta flew back up to Connor, looking around, and groaned.

"Don't tell me he took out silver-britches that easily?"

"Silver….britches?"

"Meta," a tall, silver-scaled, if humanoid dragon hybrid flew down just then. "Did I just see Captain Atom….?"

"Dragon, you might want to get out of here," Ada told him. "That thing will kill you."

The humanoid dragon-meta was strong, and he was fast. But he knew his limitations. He looked down at the creature, and slowly shook his head.

"If it is truly fused with the powers of all known metas, we might not have a chance."

"Not all," another said as Diana appeared, teleporting just below them at that instant. She flew up and joined them where they hovered just over the town, and eyed her granddaughter.

"Amazons were never included in the genetic sampling those men demanded of us. You were never included. J'onn told me of the fight, granddaughter. You are to be commended, but you have chosen a poor time to follow your lessons."

"Granddaughter," Connor frowned.

"Follow….my lessons," she frowned.

Diana put a hand on her shoulder, and eyed her as the thing below howled a grim challenge.

"We've been teaching you to hold back so long, that you're still doing it even now. But now, Adana, is the time to unleash _all_ your power. In battle, you must face your enemy with all your Amazonian might. It is time to show Man's World that Amazons will never yield. Or bow," she said, and turned to face the armored beast.

Adana stared down at it, now ignoring its threats as she lifted one fist, and clenched it.

"I'm ready," she said, and stared down at the beast.

"Then, let us show the beast how warriors fight," Diana shouted, and flew down to smash into it with both fists.

The beast when flying as if struck by a titan's hand.

Before it recovered, Adana was there, punching one, twice, three times in rapid succession, and driving it back through a brick façade, and back out the other side. The beast howled, and kicked. Adana went flying, but caught herself, and turned and glared at the armored monster.

Red fire exploded from her eyes, and this time, the animal within the man's shape screamed as its face seared to reveal a metallic skull that revealed its humanity was as much a façade as its shape.

"Abomination," Diana shouted, uncoiling her lasso. "Let there be an end to you," she spat, and caught it around its neck, and began to spin it around. "Adana! Take it! Up, and over," she said, and flung the creature into the sky.

Adana flew up with it, catching it before it could reach an apogee, and kept ascending.

She caught her own breath, unable to believe she was virtually on the very edge of the atmosphere, but noticing that the struggling creature had no trouble breathing. Or, it simply didn't need air. She turned, and flung it down, hands still gripping it as she accelerated, finding a speed within her that defied reason as she felt the heat of the air friction around her heat even her flesh to near unbearable limits. Then she slammed into the ground, and the thing truly howled.

Climbing back up out of the ground, she jumped back, and stared into the crater she had created on impact, and saw the floundering beast rolling to its knees even as Diana joined her.

"As I thought, it cannot compensate for severe inertia. Again," she suggested, swinging her lasso at the thing that had lost an entire arm on impact, but wasn't bleeding.

Black ichors did flow, but it was oily, and a metal prong jutted out from where its shoulder should have been. It looked up with blazing eyes in its skull-like visage even as Diana's golden lasso flew toward him.

Only this time, the lasso was caught, and the creature tugged with his good hand to try to bring her down.

"Abomination," Diana spat, planting her feet, and holding her ground. "I'm not that easy to take down."

"Batter up," Connor shouted, and Adana had to grin even as Superboy flew up behind the thing, and using part of a previously splintered tree at least twenty feet long, knocked the creature up, and back into the air.

Adana hit him hard, and was flying up again in the same instant.

"Error," the sputtering creature grated over her ears as it struggled with its single limb. "This scenario…..not p-probable….. Error….."

It suddenly jerked a leg up, kneeing her in the back, and making her drop it.

Connor was right behind him, catching it in the back, and flying upward at nearly the same speed she had managed before.

"Maybe we should toss it into space," he suggested when she caught herself, and flew after him.

"No good. He doesn't need air. Diana's right. Drive him into the ground. He cannot manage the force of raw inertia. It's our only chance with this guy."

"Pretty glaring weakness for such a powerful monster," Connor sputtered, reaching the edge of the atmosphere, and throwing the struggling monster back down.

"I doubt anyone conjured this scenario. One-on-one, this sucker is pretty touch."

"My bruises know," Connor laughed somberly, and dove at the creature.

Adana was right beside him.

"Give it everything. We'll crack his frame this time," she swore, and began to heat the green armor with her glowing eyes.

"You have heat vision," he sputtered. "That is just not fair," he growled, just before they hit the ground hard enough to carve a quarter mile crater into the middle of town.

Both flew up out of the crater, looking down.

To their shock, the battered, almost bisected techno-organic creature staggered up, and even they could see he was starting to regenerate now. His severed arm showed signs of growing again, and his chest was glowing with a weird energy as it began to seal the cracks in his armor.

"Now, that just stinks," Ada swore.

"Don't worry," Spark said grimly, flashing down to join them in electrical form. "Now that you have him opened up, I know what to do. I found his shutdown codes on the mainframe."

The young hero vanished in a haze of electrical sparks and smoldering ozone began to rise from the ruptures in the creature's armor as the entire massive frame quivered, shuddered, then simply fell over. Then Spark rose from out of it, and stared wearily toward them.

"Good job," Diana told him, joining the three as they stood over the fallen behemoth.

"Where are the others?"

"Pinky was helping with the evacuation. Gaia was spent, so I had Robbie take her out of here so she wouldn't get hurt," Ada told him.

"Good thinking," he nodded.

"Why couldn't you do that before now," Connor asked him as he eyed the young teen that didn't look much older than some of his own former partners.

"One, I needed the shutdown codes. Two, without an authorized keying device, I had to get inside him. Pretty much impossible until you guys cracked him like a glass."

"It wasn't that easy," Ada laughed, then laughed again.

Out of sheer relief.

"Where is Ember," Diana asked.

All three looked grim now as Spark turned to glance in the direction where he had last left his friend's body.

"He….didn't make it."

"Hera," Diana murmured.

"He died fighting," Spark told her. "He didn't quit. Not even when…."

Gordon looked away now, his expression eloquent.

"That is all that can be asked of any of us," Diana told him, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I just want to know one thing," Connor cut in, uncomfortable with the somber mood now.

They all looked at him.

"How does _she_ get heat vision?"

Diana couldn't help but laugh.

"Guess you have been out of the loop," Gordon murmured blandly.

"I'm Kal's granddaughter," Adana told him.

"Kal's….? But that means you….?"

He turned to Diana.

"You? And _Superman?"_

"We had a moment of…..weakness," she smiled fondly at a memory of her own.

"I have got to meet your mother," Connor declared. "I supppose she's just as tough."

"Funny you should say that," Adana murmured even as J'onn appeared with half the regular League in tow at that moment.

"You….stopped it," he asked Diana.

"They stopped it," Diana smiled, gesturing to the three younger heroes.

"Not without cost," Spark said, turning to walk toward the forest. "Todd didn't make it. We have to take him…..home."

J'onn said nothing as he stared after the grieving young man.

"It seems you have all acquitted yourselves well this day," he told Adana as he looked back at her. "What of the rest of your team?"

"With the civilians we evacuated," she told him.

"That's likely for the best," he said, eyeing the devastation around him. "I think we had best get a cleanup team here now, and start making repairs. These people are going to ant their homes back when they return."

"First, we get that thing out of here," Adana pointed at the fractured creature, saying, "And drop it in the sun, or something. It's too dangerous to leave laying."

"I agree," Diana nodded. "And we need to follow-up, and make sure this Cadmus, _or_ Janus, doesn't have any other prototypes laying around."

"There were nineteen other metas with me in hibernation, too," Connor told J'onn. Plastic-man, and Black Canary among them."

"Canary," J'onn frowned. "I remember when Oliver swore someone kidnapped her. Only we never found a lead."

"So, you can tell him you found…."

"No, I can't. You've slept longer than you realize, Superboy," J'onn told him.

"If Superman has a granddaughter, I guess so," he sputtered. "I didn't even know he had…. Well….kids."

Diana eyed J'onn, and both were as blank as ever.

"Long story," Diana finally said.

"Do I get to hear it," Adana asked.

"Later," Diana told her. "For now, we do have to finish this job. And take out the trash," she said, eyeing the fallen monster herself.

"And then can I get back to college?" She frowned, then asked, "Oh, and did anyone find Barb's dad?"

"No," J'onn murmured. "And it is worrying. Either he is…..gone, or he may be at the very apex of whatever conspiracy is behind this madness."

Adana sighed.

"And I really wanted to wrap this up now," she groaned.

"Life is seldom that simple," J'onn told her.

Connor glared at him.

"Still playing the sourpuss, Martian," he demanded. "Jeez, after all this time, you think you would have learned to relax," he huffed.

J'onn just stared, and turned to start directing the League members that were present even as Spark came out of the forest carrying Ember's battered, scorched body.

Adana sobered herself, and went over to join him.

"Captain Atom was wrong about their team," J'onn told Diana as she joined him. "They are true heroes."

"That is obvious, J'onn," Diana told him quietly. "My granddaughter is impetuous of late, but she is right. Captain Atom can be…..a stick-in-the-mud at times."

"Indeed. Incidentally, I have a reclamation team gathering his residual energies already. I believe we should be able to restore him."

"Adana will be thrilled," Diana murmured.

"I don't have to be a mind reader to know she really doesn't care," he told her as he glanced over at where she was standing with spark after he turned over his friend's body to one of the members who had brought down a gurney form the shuttle that was arriving with emergency supplies, and provisions in case the civilians needed them.

Considering the rush job on the evacuation, and the running fight to get them clear, Diana suspected they would be needing all the help they could get.

_To Be Continued…._


	18. Chapter 18

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**18**

"You all did a very good job," Captain Atom told Gamma as the remaining team was gathered on the Watchtower two days later.

Most of the Canadian town was rebuilt by then, and most of those in need had been tended in transit.

Gaia, having expended herself using so much power, simply needed a long rest, and she was back to nearly full strength soon afterward. Robert was unusually quiet just then, as was Pinky, but Gordon remained as somber as ever as he stood in front of their senior sponsor as he came to see them the moment he was able to move again.

"Just tell me you guys got my dad's body out of there before you buried that heap," Pinky finally asked after all the speechifying was done, as she deemed it.

"About that," Captain Atom said as he turned to her.

"What?"

"We found the bodies of all the dead, and the injured personnel left behind," he told the team. "We did not find Steele's body. Or Target, as he was apparently calling himself. However, we did find his….blood. Enough for a DNA sample."

"Why do you sound like…..?"

Captain Atom cut Adana off as he said, "We got a match in our database."

"And," Spark asked as quiet as ever.

"It's not Steele's. Who, apparently died forty-three years ago at age _two."_

"What," Pinky almost screeched.

"The DNA was a match for one Slade Wilson, AKA Deathstroke."

"Whoa," Adana frowned now. "Are you saying….Deathstroke? The _same_ Deathstroke from….back when….is still running around? That's he's…..?"

"Nightwing always said there was something strange about him," Captain Atom nodded. "Apparently, he's close enough to immortal that he's still alive. Even now."

"I saw that thing stomp him. It broke almost every rib in his body," Adana frowned.

"Always leave yourself an escape plan," Pinky murmured.

Adana frowned, remembering those words, too.

"Well, looks like he suckered all of us," Adana had to admit. "Again."

"When I find him," Pinky hissed, clenching a now gloved fist as she currently wore a full League uniform now.

"That brings us to you, Miss Steele," Captain Atom stated blandly.

"What," she sputtered. "You gonna lock me up for being his daughter now," she huffed. "Try, and see what you….."

"I was about to offer you a _provisional_ placement in the League. Perhaps on this very team, since we are, regrettably, down a member."

Pinky looked positively grim for one of the few times since Ada had known her.

Then, slowly, her smile returned as a crooked slash across her expressive face as she eyed Captain Atom.

"Only if the guys agree. I can't replace their friend, after all. But maybe….I can fill in."

"You'd be more than welcome," Spark told her.

"I think Todd would have liked that, too," Gaia nodded her way.

"I think you're all nuts anyway, but who listens to me," Ada said, rolling her eyes.

"Says the girl that ripped that Doomsday-wannabe apart like tissue," Robbie murmured somberly, still looking grim.

"It wasn't _that_ easy. And I had help."

"Speaking of help," Captain Atom added. "You'll be getting a new sponsor, and training partner, too."

"Who," Robbie asked, though he was still sounding less than interested.

"I believe some of you have already met Connor Kent. Better known as _Superboy."_

The young clone walked into the room only then, nodding at Ada who was still absorbing they were technically related, too. Then he frowned as glanced over at Pinky who grinned back, and gave him a long wolf-whistle.

"Sure you want this gig," Ada asked him. "I'll tell you now, she's nuts."

"I've noticed. By the way, O'Brian wants to talk to you," he told Pinky. "He seems pleased that his genes got passed on, even if slightly unorthodox manner. It seems his chemical instability was somehow fixed by the cold sleep, too. At any rate, he'd like to meet you, and give you a few tips with dealing with your…..powers," he said, frowning as Pinky's right arm stretched across the room, sliding around his shoulder, then the rest of her body snapped into place right beside him.

"Sounds like fun. But what about us, tall, dark, and _gorgeous?_ Are you going to show me your tricks, too," she cooed.

Connor shot Captain Atom a scathing look, but he said nothing.

Ada had the feeling this had not been Connor's idea.

That didn't surprise her.

"Plasti-Girl," Captain Atom finally snapped. "Behave. Meta, your grandmother requested you return to Themyscira before continuing with your own duties. We still have some serious followups on this mission, but I was told you were….needed. I suggest you go now, and return as soon as possible."

"Needed," she frowned.

"I am only relaying the message," he told her. "Now, tell your friend to release Connor, and the rest of your return to your current duties."

He turned, and all but marched toward the door.

"By the way," he stopped at the hatch to look back at them. "Tomorrow afternoon we're having a special memorial service for Ember. Since he had no family, we're giving him a burial in space."

"He would have liked that," Robbie nodded as Spark just stared at him.

"No," Gaia cut in. "He is a creature of the fire. He doesn't belong to space."

"What do you suggest," Captain Atom asked her.

"The sun," Ada half said, half asked.

Gaia glanced back at her, her dark face somber, and thoughtful.

"Yeah," she nodded. _"That,_ he would have liked. No cold dust and ash for our friend," Gaia called him. "From flame, to flame. He lives forever in fire."

"Sounds about right," Gordon finally remarked.

"I'll arrange a…..pyre," Captain Atom told them with a nod. "And, Team Gamma. You all did well. Very well. I hope you know I am very proud of you. All of you."

No one said a word as the silver hero left them.

"Wow, guess almost dying almost melted that stick up his…."

"He's energy. Energy can neither be created, nor destroy….."

"Jeez, Brainiac, can you ever give it a rest," Pinky complained at Ada, then eyed Connor. "Now, where were we?"

Connor groaned.

"I'd better go see what Princess Diana wants….."

"We need to talk, too," Connor told her. "We are practically…..family, it seems," he reminded her.

"I guess. I should be back in time for the service," she told them as she headed for the door.

"Don't rush," Pinky said, smiling at Connor.

Ada was pretty sure she heard Robbie mutter, "What am I? Chopped liver?"

**X**

"Ada….? I mean, Meta? Have you heard anything yet," Barb asked, standing in the door to her assigned quarters as she called out before Ada could go on up corridor to take a lift to the command deck.

"Not yet. We're still looking, though, Barb. We'll find him. We're getting closer," she told the young woman. "We'll find him," she said again as she paused to talk to her.

"Is it true? Did one of your people…..die?"

"Ember. Todd?"

"The boy that drove the van," she asked.

"Yeah. He….saved a lot of lives by giving his," she told her.

"He seemed….nice," she said.

"He was. He was very nice," Ada nodded.

"Ada…. Tell the others… Will you tell them, how sorry I am," the blonde asked quietly. Far more subdued than ever of late.

"It was hardly your fault, Barb," she told her, seeing the girl was paler than every, and obviously not sleeping well.

"My dad….. I got you all into this, and now….."

"Hey, we'd have been in it either way. This whole thing was a plot against all of us. What they turned loose," she told her. "It wasn't going to just kill metas. It was going to kill everyone. If we hadn't been there, ready for it, it might have done just that. Todd helped us keep that from happening. You should go rest now. I'll _personally_ let you know the minute we hear anything."

"Promise," the blonde asked uneasily.

"Promise," she nodded.

"Ada….."

"Yeah," she turned back just when she was about to walk away.

"Thank you."

"Apparently, it's what I do," she told her with a faint smile, and headed for the lift to carry her to the bridge.

She found Diana already there waiting on her.

"Captain Atom said…."

"Mother wants you back on the island. She didn't say why. Only that it was important."

"Okay. Mysterious much?"

"You should know mother by now."

"Right. Frankly, I'm still getting used to the idea that the Greek gods really are real."

"I grew up with them, and I'm still not all that thrilled with some of them myself," Diana quipped as they stepped onto the transport pad.

"Coordinates locked," J'onn reported. "By the way, the President denies he knew anything about Cadmus, Janus, or anything related to Failsafe. I think I may have to visit him….in person."

"Do whatever it takes," Diana told him. "This is one time we can't risk turning a blind eye. Not if they could unleash any more of those abominations at any time."

"I agree. I'll keep you informed."

"Do so," Diana nodded, and nodded again at the tech who activated the beam.

**X**

"Holy…..crap," Carla said as they watched the newscast that featured the simulated animation of the battle with clips of live action taken by a very brave reporter that showed the devastated of a Canadian town. "Ada did all that?"

"I'd say she had help," Lena remarked staring just as hard as the others in the lobby just stared as Meta was identified as one of the young heroes that someone suggested may have gone rogue, and the government tried to contain without success.

"That is so bogus," Nellie Evans sputtered. "Ada wouldn't go bad. She was helping people. Someone is lying!"

"Cover-up," Carla nodded. "Pops always said you _couldn't_ trust the government."

"Can we watch something else," someone else whined from across the lobby.

"No," more than a few voices shouted, least of all Carla, and Lena.

"You know what it is," another girl suggested. "Our girl found out something she wasn't supposed to know, so they're trying to make her look bad. Who knows what was really up there, and they don't want her getting back to tell anyone."

"Wasn't Barb with her," Nellie asked uneasily.

"Nah," Carla told her. "Pinky told me they took her up to the Watchtower before they came for her."

"Right. Where is Pinky, anyway," someone else asked. "She still has all my history notes."

"Knowing Pinky," Lena giggled. "Probably trying to get a date."

They laughed at that.

Just as they all agreed it was more than likely.

**X**

The very nervous man jumped when the costumed man appeared out of the shadows.

"Feral! What are _you_ even doing here," Agent Dillon Connors spat at him.

"It's over. Failsafe….failed."

"Impossible," the man spat, and edged toward a file cabinet.

"Looking for this," he asked, pulling out a small taser that had been heavily modified for a killing burst.

Dillon glared.

"Tell me, Agent Connors, how long have you been living a double life?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he spat.

"No? So, you deny you willingly signed the death warrant on your _own_ daughter," the costumed detective growled.

Dillon glowered.

"Nosy freak. That girl outlived her usefulness long ago," he finally spat.

"Why? Because she wasn't as smart as you deem yourself? Or because she didn't carry her mother's meta-gene, which you hoped to exploit?"

"You seem to know a lot," the federal agent spat at him. "But you know what you can prove? _Nothing._ Even if you could, you can't take any of it to court. Nada. So why don't you…..?"

The feline-clad hero was on him in an instant, diamond-tipped clawed at his throat as he literally growled, "And what makes you think I'm interested in putting you through a show-trial."

"What," he sputtered.

Feral picked him up bodily, and flung him through the nearby window. The man screamed as he began to fall. It was, after all, a very long way down.

**X**

Connor ran by Phase as he burst into the room, who stared at him, and gaped when he jerked open a storage closet, and pulled it shut after saying, "You did _not_ see me. On your _life,_ you did not see me," he hissed, and pulled the door closed with enough force to wedge the latch.

"Connor," someone singsonged as the door behind her opened again, and Phase turned to see the new girl peek in. "Hey, Ghost-girl. You see that delicious _Super_-boy fly by?"

"Went that way," she pointed down the hall.

"Thanks," she beamed, and went running, calling for Connor.

"You owe me," Phase told Connor as she walked to the door to lock it. "But why didn't you just tell her you're not interested?"

"Have you _talked_ to that girl? She's _insane_," he hissed through the door, not coming out.

"Yes," she murmured. "I know. She is O'Brian's, after all."

"I don't care who she is," he spat from inside the locker. "You tell Captain Atom to get me off that squad, and put me anywhere else he wants. But I'm not going back out with that crazed….."

"Connor," the singsong voice called again from nearby. "Come out, come out, sweetie. Pinky wants to play."

Phase was pretty sure that Connor held his breath as the girl went by.

She chortled, and went back to work, ignoring the fact Superboy was hiding in a closet from a girl. Her husband would never believe that one.

**X**

"Hello, Mr. Collins. Or is it Mr. Wilson? Or is either of those your _real_ name," J'onn asked as he caught the man.

"You! You will pay for this. I'll….."

"I rather doubt that. You, and your entire organization don't even technically exist. So, it will be far easier to make you vanish than it was with Cadmus," the Martian told him, flying up to deliver him to a sleek, flying needle where Feral was already climbing into the cockpit.

"You caught him," the grim feline detective growled. "What a shame."

"You can always throw him off another building later," J'onn drawled.

"Yes. I can," Feral said, and nodded at J'onn.

He dropped the agent into the back of the flying needle, and then Feral started the engines.

"And I will if you don't start talking," he went on. "I would say you have about…..ten thousand feet to start giving me answers, Collins. Or whatever your name really is," Feral growled.

"Ten thousand feet," he sputtered.

"Yes," Feral glanced over his shoulder as he brought the yoke back, and lifted the ship off the roof. "That's when I either decide you're being honest, and deliver you to the appropriate authorities, or….. When I roll this bird, and let you _drop."_

"You wouldn't dare," he hissed, clutching at the seat he had been forced into.

The Martian, he had noted, had stayed behind.

"Don't dare me, mister. You killed one of my teammates. A friend. I take that _personally._ I also take it poorly. Now, here's the first question," he began, and the nose of the ship began to climb in the same instant.

**X**

"Mother," Diana greeted the queen as she bowed to her, then hugged her.

"My queen," Adana frowned, bowing, but not rising, since she still felt that she was not that close to her despite their familial bond.

"Rise, child. I have heard about your exploits. You have proven yourself well-over in your battles in Man's World," the blonde queen smiled at her.

"Thank you, your majesty," Adana blushed. "I only did…. Well, I had good instructors," she babbled.

"And good instincts," Diana added. "She spared a lot of innocents, struck to the very heart of that insidious ploy, and managed to stop an abomination that might well have threatened all the world if left unchecked."

"This, I know," Hippolyta said as she led them toward the great temple where she ruled over the Amazon sisterhood.

"Technically, that mess isn't over. And….my friend still hasn't found her father, and we…."

"If I have learned anything, daughter," the queen called her. "It is that Man's World is ever in peril, and there is always danger to be found. And resisted. I know you were reluctant to face many of the challenges before you, but I daresay you have found your own way around those issues."

Adana said nothing to that.

"You are likely wondering why I summoned you," she finally said, approaching a huge statue of Hera.

"Well….."

"I spoke with Hephaestus recently. On your behalf."

"You did," Diana, and Adana both exclaimed.

"The gods agreed," Hippolyta smiled as she reached down, and took a small bundle from the base of the statue. "It is time Man's World had a _new_ champion."

"Mother?"

"_Wonder Woman_ remains charged with the tasks Zeus first set before you, Diana," she told her daughter. "However, Hera has charged that the world may well need more than a diplomat at times. Especially of late. So she is sending them…..a _Warrior."_

Adana stared at the costume she unfolded, and held up.

Diana's winged sigil adorned the dark blue material, but only so far, making it obvious some cleavage would be showing. The belt was an abbreviated version of Diana's enchanted girdle, and at it's side was a new lasso. One more ivory, than gold.

The boots, she noted when they dropped from the bundle, rose to the knee, the greaves armored, and gilt like the chest plate and girdle.

"It is time for you, daughter, to take a new mantle. And the blessing, and burden, of the gods' command."

_"Warrior,"_ Adana half echoed, eyeing the top.

"Adana?"

"So, they designed your armor, too," she asked Diana.

"They did," Hippolyta nodded. "Is something wrong, daughter?"

"No. No. It's just…. I just figured out the gods are probably all pervs," she muttered.

They all laughed as Adana just stared at the costume.

"At least you get pants," Diana quipped.

Which made them laugh again.

"So, no more civilian life, huh," Adana finally asked.

"What makes you think so," Diana asked with a smile. "Your mother manages. Many heroes do. So will you."

She sighed, and nodded.

"I think this past week is going to make hiding my identity a lot harder," she said.

"So why hide," Hippolyta told her. "Simply….be yourself."

"The best advice I've ever heard," Diana agreed.

"Pinky will never believe this one," she predicted, and went to change.

_To Be Continued…._


	19. Chapter 19

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**19**

"This is some funeral," Pinky murmured, staring at the gathered League on the command deck all watching the remote-controlled shuttle that had been conscripted to carry Todd's body to its final rest.

As it was a ship already damaged in previous action, it was chosen since it was meant to be retired anyway.

"Where's Ada? I mean, Meta," Gaia asked. "She should be here."

"I am," the tall brunette in a striking new uniform said as she stepped off the teleport pad a moment later with Diana at her side.

"Whoa," Pinky blinked. "Nice threads."

"Later," she said, and looked to the rest of her team. "Let's remember our friend. A real hero to the end," she said somberly as she nodded to Spark. "He will be missed."

"Yes," Gordon agreed, and a single tear fell from his face.

"Won't be the same without him."

Ada glanced at Robbie.

"Everything changes," she told him sagely. "It's just part of life."

"Wise words," J'onn murmured as he came up behind her. "We need to speak."

"It's been a whole day. Did you find out….?"

"Privately," J'onn told her somberly.

"Okay. Afterward," she said, her eyes going to the small shuttle now passing Mercury's orbit.

The Martian nodded, and walked away.

She kept watching, right up to the time the ship seemed to flare, and then vanish in a bright haze.

"Goodbye, Todd," Spark sighed.

"Flame to fire," Gaia murmured.

Robbie just looked away.

Pinky drew a deep breath, looked around, and asked, "Anyone see Connor? He should be here."

More than a few of those around them groaned.

"I'd better go see what J'onn needed. Might be important," she told Spark. "Catch you in the usual place?"

"We'll be in our quarters. Nothing going on just now," Gordon told her. "They're keeping us all up here while the American media crushes our reps."

"What," she sputtered.

"Feral is working on that one, but…. They're saying we're a band of rogues that hit a secret, military installation for reasons of our own. _Evil_ reasons," Robbie told her.

Ada gaped, glancing over at Diana.

"Did you know?"

"I was with you, Warrior," she told her.

"Warrior," the team frowned.

"Later," she snapped. "I'm going to see what J'onn has to say."

"Calm down," J'onn said first as he led her into a private room away from the command deck.

"I am calm," she seethed.

"I take it you've heard of the media reports."

"Spark just told me….."

"He's not wrong. Those in power are trying to cover an unlawfully placed secret outpost by claiming you were responsible for its destruction in the first place."

"Which….is technically true," she grumbled.

"Precisely. Which makes defending you tricky just now, since the administration is still loathe to admit it even had a meta agenda going beyond the registration act."

"Hypocrites," she growled.

"They often are. However, in this one instance, they are partially innocent."

"What?"

"While Janus, using the old Cadmus codes as a cover was not a legitimate government project, it was a military one."

"Of course," she grumbled.

"Led, and exploited by Anthony _Luthor."_

"Say who," she frowned. "I remember Lex. I didn't know he had a kid," she sputtered.

"Technically, he did not have….children. He did, however, have clones. One of them survived after his own death, eventually broke free of his containment, and proving he had his sire's genius, created a series of blank identities to cover his existence."

Adana frowned.

"So, he was behind everything?"

"More than you know. He was driven by an impulse even he likely didn't understand. Only where Lex hated Superman, this clone despised all metas. He decided to implement a way to destroy them all. Every single one."

"Which is whack, since the whole of humanity is a carrier for the gene," she realized.

"I don't think he cared. This clone isn't interested in wealth, power, or ambition. He simply wants metas exterminated. I believe it's a flaw in his mental programming. Likely why Luthor never activated him," J'onn speculated.

"So….where is he? I doubt he's going to be standing trial anytime soon. Is he?"

"And have the government exposed as the incompetents they were at being led by a clever Lex-clone into a doomsday plot. Again?"

"Right. So?"

"There is more. One of his aliases was Daniel Wilson."

"Oh, no," Adana paled. "Barb."

"Yes. You should know, he is not her biological father. Wilson, as he called himself, chose to wed a single mother with a promising meta-gene, wanting to see what her child would manifest. When it seemed she wasn't possessed of either an active gene, or any potential, he wrote her off."

"Wait," Ada rasped. "You're saying….Barb's own father was trying to have her killed," she exclaimed.

J'onn said nothing to that.

"I can't tell her that."

"No. I suggest we tell her nothing of her….father. It would do little good."

"And a lot of harm," she said grimly. "Did he…..?"

"Her mother was eventually conscripted into the Failsafe project. According to the records we found at one of the other sites, she died during the research phase."

"Gods!"

J'onn said nothing to that.

"So, how do we go forward?"

J'onn smiled now.

"You don't think I'm going to stay up here, and hide, do you? I'm still going to college. I have friends here, with lives to continue, too. I am sure not hiding from a bunch of phony reporters spouting phony stories," she spat.

"I didn't think you would. I was waiting for a reporter of our own to show up."

"Reporter….."

Which was when he walked into the room.

"Hello, Adana. Sounds as if you were having quite a time lately," Kal-El smiled at her, his hard, seemingly ageless body filling the room as he closed the door behind him.

Mom was right. He didn't need the cape, or the gaudy colors. The dark blue costume was more than enough with his sheer presence.

"Uh, hi. Yeah. I mean…."

"Calm down, Ada. J'onn was briefing me on what happened while I was away. Sounds like you, and your friends acquitted yourselves quite well. Now, since _Caleb Kent_ is a respected journalist like his late father Clark, I think I should get your story out before we let you finish off this fiasco. How does that sound?"

"Uh, fine. Fine," she said, just staring at him, and feeling a bit silly.

"Good. I like the new costume by the way. It looks good on you."

"Uh, thanks. It's….kind of a story by itself," she said, eyeing J'onn.

"Indeed. I would imagine so."

"Did you peek," she demanded.

The Martian actually looked offended.

"She's teasing, J'onn. Now, let's get your side down, shall we," he asked. "Just start from the beginning."

She nodded, and did just that. Starting with the day of that mission when captain Atom alerted them that someone was after Barb Wilson.

**X**

"It's Meta! Meta!"

"Ada! Over here," Carla's voice boomed as she waved manically over the crowd.

The brunette in a new costume walked alongside Dean Sanders, a neutral, if somber expression on her face as she didn't turn right, or left. She walked up to the podium prepared in the outdoor setting in front of the admin building, and nodded as the dean stepped up to the mike, and tapped the device that squealed faintly.

Some things, after all, never changed.

"If you will be quiet, and hold your questions," the dean declared as he spoke as much to the press, as to the coalition of students, and concerned parents gathered after news of Adana Winter's return to college reached them.

Caleb Kent's story came out as a small splash that created a tsunami as the current administration was left scrambling as news that the registration gene-banks were used by unscrupulous parties in the military to create a super-weapon that Adana's team had discovered, intercepted, and stopped before it could do any real harm.

With the thanks of a very angry Canadian government that had no clue Janus had set up shop under its very nose, the media had swiftly changed the official stories that had been initially set out to discredit, and undermine her.

"First," Ian Sanders said as Adana stood beside him, and simply stared. "Many of you already know Adana Winter by now. Amazon's daughter came here to attend college, and find her own place in the world. The same as any of our fine students. It is to her credit that twice she has acted above, and beyond to save her fellow students, and then, to save us all. That does not change her desire to attend our institution, and complete her education."

The complaints began to sound almost as once.

"My mom is such a sheep," someone groaned near Carla, and her small group.

"Before this gets out of control, I have someone that wants to speak. Other than Adana," he added when someone started trying to get the 'boos' going.

From behind the podium, and behind other members of the faculty, a pale, quiet blonde stepped forward, and smiled faintly at the costumed heroine. Then, drawing a deep breath, she turned, and stepped up into Ian Sander's place.

"My name is Barbara Wilson. Some of you know me. Some of you knew my dad. He was not only the head of Gen-Tech, and an advisor to the White House, he was a man that _sacrificed_ his life for what was right."

Adana's jaw clenched now, but she maintained her silence as the blonde went on.

"I, myself, couldn't believe it when people targeting my father, began to target me. If it weren't for Adana, I wouldn't be here now. She saved my life more than once, and risked her life to find my father. It's not her fault she was too late. She saved me, and proved that I wasn't just a paranoid coed like the local police claimed. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here, and my dad would have died for no reason," she sniffed. "But she….. She and her….friends…. They found those men responsible, and they risked their lives….. To stop those real madmen. One of them, a very brave young man, died to protect all of us. And you stand here….."

She stopped, tears flowing now as she wiped them away with a ruthless swipe of her hand, and glared.

"You stand here, and protest a brave woman who stood up when no one else would? Or could? Shame on you. Shame on all of you."

She turned, and hugged Adana, and then walked away. Then ran.

No one stopped her.

Adana turned, and glanced after her, noting she was headed straight for the dorm.

Ian Sanders nodded at her now, clearing his throat to gain her attention, and she glanced back, and eyed the microphone as if it were something venomous.

"I have a prepared statement," she said, staring right into the center of the parents, ignoring the media around the crowd. "I will say what I have to say, and then leave. I would appreciate your attention."

For a moment there were a few murmurs, and then the entire crowd seemed to hush.

Likely because at that exact moment, four of the most famous Justice League members had dropped out of the skies to land directly behind her. She didn't have to look to know them. Diana, J'onn, Kal, and Captain Atom all stood there. Silent. Staring. Supportive.

Nice touch, she thought, wishing she knew they were coming.

Of them all, Kal made her the most nervous. Knowing he and Diana were her grandparents still rattled her.

"I am Adana Winter. Some have called me Meta. I," she said, "Am an Amazon. Like my mother. And her mother before her. I grew up in Man's World. I grew up alongside you. Learned alongside your children. And I was overlooked. Because, for a long time, I was _not_ a hero. I was nobody. But if I have learned anything, it is that life changes. I have a meta-gene. It changed me. I could be your child," she said, eyeing a woman holding an insulting sign. "Or yours," she said, turning to eye a man who had been muttering loudly against all metas. "Any of yours. But I am who I am, and all I want is the chance to finish my education, and live my own life. Because I am a meta, and an Amazon, I will stand up, and I will defend those around me who cannot stand for themselves. If that somehow offends you…"

She paused now, sweeping the crowd, and seeming to meet every eye.

"I don't care. I am Adana Winter. I am _Warrior_, and I am not here to please you. I am here to defend you. Nothing more. Now, _get off my back_," she growled, and leapt into the sky, and flew toward the dorm.

"That last wasn't in the speech," Diana mused somberly as Kal stepped forward.

"Obviously," J'onn remarked dryly, but she could hear the rare humor in his tone.

"I liked it," Diana added.

"Children do grow up."

"Thank you for giving Warrior your attention. While she is young, and more….abrupt, I hope you understand what she is trying to tell you. So long as she is able, so long as any of us are able, we are going to defend you. And this world. That is our calling. I hope you give her the chance all of us needed at the start. To grow, learn, and mature. Considering her erratic beginnings, I hope you know she has given us, the League, and her family, every cause to be proud of her, and no reason to be ashamed of her. That said, I hope you will give her that chance here, and allow her to finish her education in peace. Thank you," Kal said, and stepped back.

Ian Sanders just stared at his unexpected guests, then someone shouted, "If you're so proud, where's her _mother_? Why didn't she come?"

Diana stepped forward now.

"My daughter, Amazon, is busy cleaning up the mess in D.C. that spawned all this madness," she told the speaker that was among the parents. "Any other stupid questions?"

"And you thought Ada was curt," Kal chortled to J'onn.

Captain Atom sighed, and stepped forward to take Diana's place.

"I, as _Warrior's_ League sponsor am here to assure you that your children will be more than safe here while she attends classes. Not only will she be helping watch this campus, but the League in general will step up our patrols in the area to keep anyone from thinking to exploit her presence here in any fashion. You have our word."

He stepped back, heels all but clicking, and nodded to Ian.

"If that is all, sir," he asked, and began to rise into the air.

"I belive….that's more than sufficient," the dean told him, watching the four legendary figures rise into the air over their heads.

"Wooooo," someone shouted. "Yay, Ada! We love Warrior!"

"Pinky," Carla turned to shout, seeing the blonde standing behind her as if she had been there all along. "Where have you been?"

"Chasing cute guys," she grinned.

"Catch any," Lena asked knowingly.

"Nah. They were too fast," she sighed mournfully.

Lena, and Carla burst into laughter.

**X**

"You okay," Ada, back in civilian clothes herself asked as she walked into Barb's newly restored room after knocking, and hearing her softly whispered invitation.

"I…. I will be," she said. "I hope you know…. I meant what I said. It's not your fault you didn't find dad in time….."

"Just remember what your parents taught you, and be strong. You'll be fine," Ada told her, giving the blonde a light hug.

"Thank you. And…. Thank you for being…. Friends?"

"Sure. If you need anything, you know where to find me," she told her. "That is, if they do let me stay."

"Surely they wouldn't…..?"

"The dean is trying, but he still has a lot of pressure to boot me," she admitted.

"What happens if they do," the woman asked her. "I mean…. Where would you go?"

"Honestly? I don't know. Maybe…. Maybe back to Themyscira for a while. I do still have a lot of lessons to learn since I…powered up again."

Barb nodded.

"So, are you going to tell your friends? You know, about yourself?"

"I've thought about it, and…. I think you're right. I should be honest with them. If only to clear the air. I am a bit uncomfortable when Pinky starts babbling about boys, and dating."

"Which is pretty much the only things she does babble about," Barb remarked knowingly.

"Yeah. I do know Connor is pretty happy she's off the Watchtower now."

"For now," a voice said from behind her. "And what was that about being honest," Pinky demanded, standing there with Carla, Lena, and Nellie behind her. There was no sign of Gina, her other roommate.

"Barb, I couldn't believe it when I saw you there. I was afraid…."

The girl came over, and started to tentatively hug her.

Barb, once, would have shoved her aside.

She hugged her first, and held on.

"I'm glad to see you, too, Nell," she said quietly. "Really glad."

"So, true confessions? What's up, girlfriend," Carla asked.

"My room," Adana sighed. "And….I'm asking you keep what I'm about to tell you secret. Please?"

"Hey, I'm all about secrets," Pinky grinned, no one outside the League other than Barb yet knowing Pinky was Plasti-Girl, and a junior member of the League, too.

"Right," every one of them drawled.

"Hey!"

"Mind if I come up, too," Barb asked, surprising the girls from the third floor.

"Sure," Ada shrugged. "Besides, you already know."

"She does? What? What does she know?"

"Impatient much," Carla asked Pinky. "And what about you? What were you doing all that time you were gone?"

"Chasing Superboy," Barb grinned, having heard of that one from both sides.

"Superboy? _The_ Superboy," Lena asked.

"He's back," Ada nodded. "We found him locked up by the baddies, and busted him out."

"He's so cool. I used to read all about him, and…."

They all eyed Lena, even as Pinky growled, "He's mine. He just doesn't know it yet."

Ada and Barb both burst into laughter.

"Upstairs," Pinky demanded. "I want to know about these secrets my best friend has been hiding."

"Yeah, and what's with the new threads, and the new name," Carla asked.

"Okay, okay. I'll explain. Upstairs," she pointed.

**X**

"General Flagg," Amanda Winter burst into his office at the Pentagon, staring at the man as she dropped the unconscious Marine still clutched in one hand. "You're a hard man to see."

"Apparently not," the man grumbled, eyeing her standing there in full costume. "Weren't you retired?"

"Apparently not," she echoed his own words.

"Just what do you think you're even doing here? Give me one reason not to call down security, and have you busted for….."

"Spare me the righteous indignation. We know about the Luthor clone. We know you pointed Aiers at him, and wound them both up. We know you set up Janus, and covered for the entire program to ensure they could set up a working program under our collective noses."

"Speculation, and hearsay," he snorted.

"No. Hardly hearsay," she said, walking into the office. "You're as bad as your father, and just as blindly arrogant. I'm here to serve warning."

"Oh?"

"We're watching you. The League is watching you. You may have the rest blinded, but you're on our radar now. Try anything else, and we will land on you."

"Am I supposed to be frightened by that bravado," he postured as he stood up behind his desk, drawing himself to his full height.

"No. That was merely information for your own edification. Now is the time for you to be frightened," she said, and in a blur of motion, grabbed the man, slammed him into the wall, and held him there well off his feet.

"Put…me….down!"

"Not until you hear me out, little man," Amazon spat back at him, holding him easily in place.

"I know you and Aiers targeted my husband. I know _you_ aimed that freak at my daughter. This is your first, last, and only warning. If you, or yours go anywhere near my daughter again," she said as she dropped him, and walked away.

"What," he demanded, regaining his feet as she reached the door. "More puerile threats?"

"Hardly," she glanced over her shoulder at the door. "You even look her way, and they won't even find the body. That, General Flagg, is not a threat. It is a promise."

The door cracked from the force of her slamming the thick, oak panel.

Waylon Flagg, Richard Flagg's surviving son, stared at that broken panel for a very long time.

Then he left the office, and went to his car, driving away without looking back.

_To Be Concluded..._


	20. Chapter 20

_I do not own any of the characters named herein, and am only using them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only. _

**Meta**

**By LJ58**

**Epilogue:**

General Waylon Flagg frowned as he heard the small chirp as he left the city to make his rendezvous.

The chirp continued, and it worried him.

A lot.

He was not that worried about Winter. She was all bluster. Always had been. Even when the fingers pointed right at D.C. when her witless activist of a husband had been silenced, she had eventually backed down. The right warnings, and the right threats aimed at her children, had shut her up.

They would again.

The chirping sounded, and he scowled more darkly.

No, Winter didn't worry him.

Not that Winter, at least.

The youngest one, though. She wasn't manifesting Amazonian might. She was now apparently manifesting Kryptonian might on a level that rivaled even the alien's.

That worried him.

It proved all those theories were wrong. It proved the alien could reproduce. And obviously had. Who knew how many of his overly powerful spawn were out there, corrupting the world, and interfering with human history?

The chirping was dangerously close to annoying him now, and he pulled over, and climbed out of the car to search for the source. He finally found a small case in the back of his car. The same case that held the primary samples for the meta research he had salvaged before Janus went under.

Failsafe was not dead.

Just delayed.

Even better, among those primary samples, he now had _hers._ The youngest Winter herself would soon yield all her secrets to his researchers, and then their next prototype truly would be unstoppable. He would just ensure that no idiots marred its programming next time.

He would do it himself, if necessary.

Pulling open the case, he frowned as he noted the case was empty. Except for the overly loud cell phone chirping insistently. Scowling all the more, he noted the screen was blank, and had a shiver of anxiety as he picked it up, and answered.

"Flagg," he barked.

"So, what? Expecting a salute," an insolent voice demanded.

"Target," he growled. "Where are my samples?"

"Funny you should ask. Someone canceled my last payment. Right before I was betrayed."

"Don't talk to me of betrayal, you slimy bastard! I know you helped expose Failsafe, and Janus!"

"You shouldn't have killed my wife," he shot back. "Or targeted my daughter."

"Your….wife? You'll have to be specific. A lot of sacrifices have been made. And will be made. I won't apologize….."

"I don't expect an apology. Not from a hypocritical back-stabber like you, Waylon. No, I thought, for old time's sake, I'd give you a warning."

"Warning? Listen, you over-hyped hitman….."

"Careful, Waylon. I know where your real family lives. Be a shame if _they_ had a sudden….accident. Wouldn't it?"

"You touch my family, and I'll…!"

"What? Send your agents for me? Good luck. Besides, it isn't me you have to worry about, Flagg. Being a…..sentimental sort, I sent a complete dossier of your work, past and present, to a friend of ours. You know her, I think. Wears black. Has an attitude. Works for the NSA, when she feels like it."

Waylon felt his heart thud as his hand tightened on the phone.

"I'd start running if I were you, soldier. I'd start running now."

"I won't…..be blackmailed…."

"Blackmail? You do realize that you targeted her mother, and sister. That you murdered her father. Trust me, Tala, or _Fang, _that bitch is coming for you. Soon. Just thought I'd add to your ulcers," Target chortled softly. "Tah!"

Waylon Flagg hissed as the line went dead.

That bastard had just confirmed a key piece of Intel no one had ever been able to confirm before now. The infamous, some said bloodthirsty vigilante Fang, was Tala Winter. Well, she wouldn't have time to come for him. He'd strike first.

He thumbed the phone, and realized there was no dial tone.

Rushing back to the driver's door, he scrambled for his own phone in his discarded jacket. Even as he pulling it out, he heard something rustling just overhead, and looked up to see a black shape with long, gleaming claws coming right at him.

Then he didn't know anything at all.

_End…..?_


End file.
